Shopping for Health Care

This past weekend, I attended the MPhA Winter Clinical Conference-some meetings not great, some really good. One of the better ones highlighted a project that Drs. Schommer and Schondelmeyer (and others) have been working on for the past few months.

Drug companies, due to direct-to-consumer ads and other marketing (where they spent, just on direct-to-consumer ads, nearly $6 Billion in 2005!) have been great on getting their name out and information...on their new brand name drugs. To attempt to improve the information on non-marketed drugs, the U of M PRIME Institute began to develop information on drugs that were almost as effective as the brand name, but generic. More information on this project can be found at crbestbuydrugs.org. I encourage you to direct your patients to this website, and ask Drs. Schommer and Schondelmeyer for more information if you are interested.

In addition, a new website just started as well. You likely have heard the advertisements or seen the billboards on https://www.carol.com/ a new website that allows you to shop and compare health care. It will be interesting to see where this leads, and if this "shopping" for healthcare allows greater effectiveness in the use of health care flex spending accounts.