Boots pharmacy rip-off

nino1

I'm taking stomach tablets and if I take them one tablet daily they cost €29 from boots. If I want two months supply (I.e. 56 tablets it's costs double €58.
Their price model is cost price + €7 professional fee so it's €22 + €7.

If the doctor had prescribes me 56 tablets one twice daily the same amount of tablets and the same work for the pharmacist would have cost me €51 in boots ie 22+22+7.

If you buy 6 months of a prescription elsewhere you only pay one dispensing fee saving you €25
In boots you pay the €7 professional fee each time and save nothing.

davo10

I'm not sure what the rip off in your case is from your post. From what I can gather boots charge €7 per script. If you get six months supply on one script them it is €7, if you get six seperate 1 month supplies on 6 seperate scripts then boots staff have to dispense medication on 6 seperate dates so charge 6 X €7. If you are aware of the charge before you purchase then I'm not sure you can claim to be ripped off just because you are charged each time. The high €7 charge itself may be a different matter.

mathepac

I'd challenge Boots on this. A two-month supply, dispensed off the same script. should only cast 51 (22+22+7). It seems, as you suggest, they are doubling up the dispensing fee to arrive at 58.

It there were two different drugs on the script, the I believe that two dispensing fees would be the norm.

Have you checked with your local (Irish, non-chain) pharmacist?

davo10

Mathepac, the OP is not very clear, I think his/her point is that you should not have to pay a second time if you go back in with the second months prescription.

OP if your GP gives you one script for tablets once daily for two months, as it is dispensed once, there is only one €7 fee, if you get seperate monthly scripts, then each time they are dispenced, you pay €7.

Maybe I'm interpreting the OP wrong.

nino1

davo10 wrote: »

OP if your GP gives you one script for tablets once daily for two months, as it is dispensed once, there is only one €7 fee

Not in boots, that's the point of the op!
They charge you two €7 fees even if you get them at the same time.

nino1

mathepac wrote: »

Have you checked with your local (Irish, non-chain) pharmacist?

Yes, boots are the only ones doing this. Others chains don't do it either.
There's nothing illegal with that, I'll just take my business elsewhere.

davo10

nino1 wrote: »

Not in boots, that's the point of the op!
They charge you two €7 fees even if you get them at the same time.

Just to clarify, are they two seperate prescriptions you are getting at the same time?

juan.kerr

Is this different to how Boots do things in the UK?

Shint0

nino1 wrote: »

Yes, boots are the only ones doing this. Others chains don't do it either.
There's nothing illegal with that, I'll just take my business elsewhere.

Yes, that's exactly what I did after being charged €27 one time for a monthly script which usually costs €15 elsewhere. When I queried it I was told that was the price. I felt they probably hike up their medicines and fees to offset against all their 3 for 2s.

nino1

davo10 wrote: »

Just to clarify, are they two seperate prescriptions you are getting at the same time?

Don't worry about MY script Davo I was just using it as an example.
I verified the pricing model with the pharmacist and doubled checked with another boots store.
Here it is again, I can't make it any simpler!

One month supply €22 + €7 fee = €29
two months supply (getting them at the same time as one dispense) €22 + €22 + €7 + €7 = €58
ie two fees for one dispense

In any other pharmacy you pay one fee per dispense whether you are getting one month or 6 months supply.

Now to make it more complicated. If my doctor wrote 56 tablets take one twice daily
(ie one month supply) the charge would only be 22 + 22 + 7 ( ie €7 less for the same work for the pharmacist)

So if I get my doctor to write one twice daily and I only take one daily I save myself €7.

Crazy pricing structure!

nino1

juan.kerr wrote: »

Is this different to how Boots do things in the UK?

Yes

davo10

Boots have a "fee per item of service" for the dispensing of prescriptions, €7. If they dispence one script whether its for a 5 day, 10 day, 2 month supply of medication, they charge one fee as long as it is one script. If its 5 scripts for the equivalent 2 month supply, then there is five items of service ie 5x€7

The €7 may be high but it is not a rip off if you are getting seperate scripts dispensed.

JOSman

Add that to the profit made from the prescribed drugs.

sandin

JOSman wrote: »

Add that to the profit made from the prescribed drugs.

Thye don't - that's the whole ppoint of the new pricing. The drugs are sold at cost price and boots add €7 per prescription. Great value for expensive drugs, poor value for cheap drugs.

Prior to this, the pharmacy would have a 50% mark up, in this case €11, so the OP is saving €4/script compared to 3 months ago.

angeldelight

I want to start this by saying I'm a pharmacist, and I don't work for Boots.

Posts like this do make me smile - when boots launched their new pricing model a few months ago, it was all over the news. The media totally bought into the Boots press releases, and published them pretty much verbatim without doing any actual research or investigations of their own.

Patients came in and demanded (many not very nicely it must be said) their prescriptions so they could go to Boots.

Yes, certain items are cheaper, particularly medications which are more expensive to start with. However Boots are not a charity - of course they've figured out that this model will make them more money.

The lesson? Shop around!

nino1

davo10 wrote: »

If they dispence one script whether its for a 5 day, 10 day, 2 month supply of medication, they charge one fee as long as it is one script.

Wrong again Davo10! For 2 months supply of medication on the one script as you have stated above they charge two €7 fees. It's nothing to do with the number of scripts it's €7 professional service fee per ITEM. Don't know how to describe it to you any simplier than the last example!

gmf1024

This issue was raised in the Irish Times on the 19th of November.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/pricewatch/2012/1119/1224326783181.html

YOUR CONSUMER QUERIES ANSWERED: A reader from Cork went to a Boots outlet in the Wilton Shopping Centre last week with a prescription. She asked that a four-month quantity of the item be dispensed. “The pharmacist said she could do this as the prescription was for six months but would have to charge €7 for each month of dispensing.”

Our reader asked about the price of the prescription item, as this was the first time she had been prescribed it, and was told it was €18.37 for a 30-day supply. “The four-month supply, for both the drug and dispensing cost, would have amounted to more than €100,” she writes. “I was taken aback that there would be a dispensing charge for each of the four months, but was told by the pharmacist that ‘Boots had lowered the costs of their drugs so much’, they had to make the dispensing charge.”

So she took her prescription to O’Sullivan’s Pharmacy in the same shopping centre – where she was told that the charge for the items for four months was €53.30. “There was no dispensing charge as ‘these had been done away with’. Caveat emptor.” Indeed.

daenerysstormborn3

Just for some balance to this thread.

I have chronic asthma and have been on inhalers all my life. A few months ago, I was charged €128 approx. for my Seretide inhaler in an independently owned Pharmacy in Waterford. I bought the exact same inhaler in Boots in Waterford for €74 the following month. Also, to date I have not been charged a €7 dispensation fee by Boots, unless it is incorporated into the cost of my medication, in which case, Boots are still cheaper.

allthedoyles

And for medical card holders ,the fee is 50 cent per item as well .

If you are dispensed 2 items ,why would expect to only pay for 1 item.

On the other hand , note that Pharmacies are paid €4 for each prescription issued to medical card holders , so it is unfair for any Pharmacy to charge an individual €7 .

kdowling

pixiebean22 wrote: »

Just for some balance to this thread.

I have chronic asthma and have been on inhalers all my life. A few months ago, I was charged €128 approx. for my Seretide inhaler in an independently owned Pharmacy in Waterford. I bought the exact same inhaler in Boots in Waterford for €74 the following month. Also, to date I have not been charged a €7 dispensation fee by Boots, unless it is incorporated into the cost of my medication, in which case, Boots are still cheaper.

Thats not a like for like comparison. Seretide inhalers have come down in price so although that price from boots is cheaper it is not €128 in any independent pharmacy.

Boots are only cheaper for the few expensive drugs/inhalers in that price category. If your drugs bill comes to over €132 the prices will make no difference to you and if you are prescribed cheaper medication Boots are more expensive.
Boots have realised that drugs are getting cheaper and cheaper and are capitalising on this by charging more for these drugs.

kdowling

allthedoyles wrote: »

And for medical card holders ,the fee is 50 cent per item as well .

That is a government levy and nothing to fo with Boots.

allthedoyles wrote: »

If you are dispensed 2 items ,why would expect to only pay for 1 item.

If you dispense 2 different items you pay 2 dispensing fees but you dispense 2 months of one item you pay one dispensing fee. That is the case everywhere else except boots.

allthedoyles wrote: »

On the other hand , note that Pharmacies are paid €4 for each prescription issued to medical card holders

That's not correct

allthedoyles wrote: »

so it is unfair for any Pharmacy to charge an individual €7

.[/Quote]

The fee the government pays for a medical card prescription is irrelevant. What has that got to do with a private sale.