Looking for 40-percent discounts on brand-named drugs? Do you have gaps in your drug coverage? Are you limited by your coverage, or have none at all? Not a U.S. citizen? Then this could be the program for you. Officials in
Looking for 40-percent discounts on brand-named drugs? Do you have gaps in your drug coverage? Are you limited by your coverage, or have none at all? Not a U.S. citizen? Then this could be the program for you.
Officials in the state Department of Human Services are asking Kaua‘i residents to sign up for the new, “Hawaii Rx Plus” discount-drug program.
The program is free, and could offer most Kaua‘i residents, regardless of existing drug coverage or income, up to 40-percent discounts on brand-name drugs.
“It’s really for people who don’t have drug coverage now, but it’s also perfect for those people who exceed or are outside the formula area of their existing coverage,” said Lillian Koller, director of the DHS.
Unlike Medicare-sponsored “discount” drug cards, the Rx Plus card is for anyone, regardless of age, citizenship or type of employment. Koller estimates there are 300,000 people across the state without drug coverage.
“We need those 300,000 people to sign up around the state, and that way we can negotiate the best possible discount deals with the pharmaceutical companies,” Koller said.
Koller will be meeting with various drug-company representatives in January, at which time she hopes to have a state roster of somewhere between 200,000 to 300,000 signatories.
By bringing that many people to the program, Koller said she can negotiate far more than the standard 15-percent discount, perhaps as high as 40 percent or more.
“It’s a heck of a carrot for the drug companies,” Koller said. She said the DHS can encourage drug companies to support huge discounts by offering a huge number of steady clients for them in return — clients who will buy from them instead of going online to find cheaper drugs overseas, or who cut back on their drugs, or simply suffer without the drugs they desperately need.
Volunteers and DHS personnel will be enrolling Kaua‘i residents tomorrow, Wednesday, July 21, from 8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. at the Waimea Neighborhood Center; from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at the Lihu‘e Neighborhood Center; and from 11 a.m. to 12:30 a.m. at the Kapa‘a Neighborhood Center.
Self-enrollment is easy by going to www.hawaiirxplus.com and downloading the three-question application form.
Phil Hayworth, business editor, may be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 251) or phayworth@pulitzer.net.
