About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline

GAO-02-280R 1 (2001-12-05)

handle is hein.gao/gaocrptanxs0001 and id is 1 raw text is: 



  SGAO

       Accountability * Integrity  Reliability
United States General Accounting Office
Washington, DC 20548


         December 5, 2001

         Congressional Requesters

         Subject: Prescription Drugs: Prices Available Through Discount Cards and From
                  Other Sources

         This letter responds to your request for information on how the prices for
         prescription drugs purchased using drug discount cards compare with the prices
         available at local pharmacies or over the Internet. Using a list of 17 drugs that are
         among the most widely prescribed to the Medicare population, we have documented
         prices from several sources. These included prices available from (1) five companies
         that administer large drug discount card programs, (2) five Internet pharmacies, and
         (3) several retail pharmacies in four different areas-Washington, D.C.; Chicago;
         Seattle; and rural Georgia. (See encl. I for additional details on our scope and
         methodology.) We did not independently verify the drug prices provided by these
         sources. With this exception, we performed our work from September through
         November 2001, in accordance with generally accepted government auditing
         standards.

         The drug prices we obtained from these sources are presented in enclosures II
         through V.

         As arranged with your offices, unless you release its contents earlier, we plan no
         further distribution of this letter until 30 days after its issuance date. At that time, we
         will send copies to interested parties. This letter will also be available on GAO's
         home page at .g!www qgy.go.. If you or your staffs have any questions regarding
         this letter, please contact me at (202) 512-7119 or John Hansen at (202) 512-7105.





         Laura A. Dummit

         Director, Health Care-Medicare Payment Issues

         Enclosures - 5


GAO-02-280R Prescription Drug Prices

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Contact us for annual subscription options:

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

profiles profiles most