Michael Hebert sees some potential trouble ahead:
So what’s the problem, critics may ask. Cheaper drugs for more people. The American way. But there is a possible problem. If Wal-Mart’Â’s list becomes everybody’s list, that means Wal-Mart is setting national health care policy. Put another way, someone at Wal-Mart will be deciding if your blood pressure will be treated with atenolol or metoprolol. Or if, after a root canal, your dentist will send you home with Lortab or Darvocet. In that light, it may matter just a little.
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- A "tidal wave" of generic medications coming to market
- Insurance companies ripping patients off for generic drugs?
- Paying doctors off to use generic medications
- Are generic medications as good as their brand name counterparts?
- Pre-authorizations for generic medications
- High cost generic medications
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I’m not sweating the restricted formulary that the Wal-Mart list will create. Most of the drugs within categories are quite equivalent enough. Equivalence or superiority studies all have some contrivance in the experimental design to help insure the desired statistical outcome.
The real struggle is going to be for prescribers who know how to use only the drugs that the drug rep pushes. Gotta go back and relearn how to use the drugs that were cutting edge back in med school a decade or so ago.
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