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MWD-76-46 1 (1975-12-05)

handle is hein.gao/gaobaaapp0001 and id is 1 raw text is: SL.ER cckys01/ /1W 7G9' COMPTROLLER GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES WASHINGTON, D.C. Z0548 B-133044 DEC 5 1975 The Honorable Bill Chappell House of Representatives Dear Mr. Chappell: Your May 7, 1975, letter requested that we obtain data on outpatient prescription costs in the Veterans Administra- tion (VA). You wanted us to emphasize not only drug costs but also certain overhead and administrative costs asso- ciated with outpatient prescriptions. You felt that ade- quately considering these factors would provide a more meaningful comparison between VA and private administration of the outpatient pharmacy program. VA does not accumulate cost data on each of the cate- gories you outlined in your letter. We agreed with your office to collect data on directly chargeable costs--drug costs, drug supplies, and personnel--to VA's outpatient pharmacy program. We also agreed to include indirect costs, such as administration and depreciation, that were avail- able from VA records at the locations visited. We also obtained the total costs for fee-basis prescriptions (pre- scriptions filled by non-VA pharmacies) reported by these facilities. From our review, we estimate that the VA cost per out- patient prescription amounts to $4.57. The average cost per fee-basis prescription amounts to $7.82, about 71 per- cent more than the VA cost. We made our review at (1) VA's central office in Wash- ington, D.C., (2) VA hospitals in Altoona and Lebanon, Pennsylvania; Denver, Colorado; Fort Howard, Maryland; and Miami, Florida, and (3) VA independent outpatient clinics in Boston, Massachusetts; San Antonio, Texas; and Los Angeles, California. BACKGROUND As part of its health care system, VA operates an out- patient treatment program, primarily through outpatient clinics at VA hospitals. On September 24, 1975, 215 out- patient clinics were in operation, of which 7 were indepen- dent clinics not affiliated with a VA hospital. In fiscal year 1975, VA reported an outpatient workload of 14.6 million MWD-76-46

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