Wal-Mart expands prescription drug discount program

Oct 19 2006

Wal-Mart Stores on Thursday likely will announce the expansion of a generic prescription drug discount program introduced last month in Florida to additional states, the Newark Star-Ledger reports (May, Newark Star-Ledger, 10/19).

Wal-Mart last month announced that the program -- under which some company pharmacies would sell 30-day prescriptions of certain generic medications for $4 -- would initially include 65 Wal-Mart, Sam's Club and Neighborhood Market pharmacies in the Tampa, Fla., area and would expand statewide in early 2007 and possibly to other states in the future.

Earlier this month, Wal-Mart expanded the program statewide in Florida (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 10/6).

According to the AP/Arizona Daily Star, Wal-Mart likely will expand the program to Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas and Vermont (Kabel, AP/Arizona Daily Star, 10/19).

Wal-Mart said that the program has received a strong customer response in Florida.

Wal-Mart said that the number of prescriptions filled at company pharmacies in the Tampa area increased by 36,000 in the first 10 days of the program.

In addition, Wal-Mart said that the generic medications included in the program account for almost 30% of the prescriptions filled at company pharmacies in Florida (Newark Star-Ledger, 10/19).

A Wal-Mart spokesperson said that the company seeks to expand the program "as quickly as possible" (Guy, Chicago Sun-Times, 10/19). NPR's "Morning Edition" on Thursday reported on Wal-Mart's expansion of its low-cost prescription drug program.

The segment includes comments from Gary Claxton, a vice president at the Kaiser Family Foundation and director of its Health Care Marketplace Project, and Bill Simon, executive vice president of the Wal-Mart professional services division (Silberner, "Morning Edition," NPR, 10/19).

The complete segment is available online in RealPlayer.