American Health Care 2005: Insurer offers tips to split pills in half

[Bluebear]

MILWAUKEE, Wis. - The nation's second-largest health insurer, UnitedHealthcare, is giving away away pill-splitters and offering half-price on drugs for those who split double-strength pills, cutting the patient's insurance copayment in half. The company is also providing advice on which drugs can be safely cut in half.

"It has the potential for meaningful savings," said Tim Heady, CEO of UnitedHealth Pharmaceutical Solutions, a division of UnitedHealthcare, based in Edina, Minn.

"For every patient that chooses to reduce their costs by 50 percent, it would reduce ours and their employer's cost by half of the cost of that prescription as well," he said. "The question is how many consumers would be willing to participate."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050610/ap_on_he_me/pill_splitting

[NorCalDem]

1. "See now...

"when you can't afford healthcare anymore, there's a simple solution. Just take half of your medicine, it still might work, and think of the money you can save."

[Deja Q]

2. A frigging knife from the drawer works just as well. BUT no cynicism for:

No need to exploit Chinese workers to make the blue smurfing junk gadget.

But no cynicism on here: For some drugs my doctor prescribes 2x pills and tells me to take half the dosage because it's cheaper. Not because it's half the amount I need.

[Ilsa]

3. I have a better idea:

Ask the doc to write the script for double the dosage you usually take, then split the dose on your own. Lasts twice as long for the same cost, usually.

I'm not gonna say whether I know any docs who do this...

[Bluebear]

4. Ain't it disgusting? We have to "get around" drug costs

But we can't import drugs from Canada, no that is too dangerous!

[unhappycamper]

5. Ahhhhhhhhhhhh. Excuse me. (he raises his hand.)

Don't doctors proscribe a particular drugs at a specific dose? Please refresh my memory why / how a consumer knows that the dosage proscribed can safely be cut in half.....

[Toots]

7. No fair trying the new fangled logic stuff around here

If someone says them thar pills is double the strength than I'm sure we don't need to listen to no damn doctors. them thar 'scriptions is all a bunch of gibberish anyhows. I tried to read one once and it didn't even have any the's or a's. All jist big ol' gibberish words.

[Straight Shooter]

6. If the pill is double-strength to begin with, it SHOULD be cut in half.

I'm a little concerned because these pill-splitters (I've used them), don't always work precisely. If a precise dose is necessary, it's not a good idea.

However, why not sit bush down at a table and keep him occupied by letting him split tens of thousands of pills for senior citizens, many of whom might get confused as to which pills can be split and which can't?

I also have a concern that people will be splitting pills which they should not be cutting in half, undermining the effectiveness of the drug.

Solution: stop gouging Americans and charge a fair price for the drugs.

[Ilsa]

9. That is true, and sometimes a little bit of the capsule can get

shaved off. You might be missing a small percentage of your dosage. But usually a slight amount like that may not matter. Absorption is dependent on a number of factors with some drugs.

I don't like pill splitting, because it is too easy for alot of people to screw up and forget and take the whole amount.

What i like about pill splitting is the doc writing a script for twice the dosage that is needed, so whenyou get that 90 day supply, it takes care of you for 180.

[Bluebear]

10. Does Buesh even know fractions? nt

[thecrow]

8. Kaiser Permanente has been doing this for a couple years

I know.. I am splitting pills.
But some days my Lipitor dosage is much less than on other days because the pills do not split exactly in half EVER.
What does this mean to me? Dunno... I am not a medical person.

Now with an elderly patient who cannot handle a pillsplitter acurately, or who misunderstands the directions.. what happens?
I shudder to think if my mom were in this position.

[NMMNG]

11. Hah!

I tried to go that route once to bypass my insurance company's stingy limit on Imitrex tablets (they allow 9 50mg tablets in a month). I thought if I had the doctor prescribe the 100mg tablets, which also come in a 9 tablet blister pack, that I could just cut them in half and thereby get double the amount of medication for the same co-pay. When you take the actual cost of the medication it is only around $20-$30 more at the pharmacy.

You know what the insurance company does with the 100mg tablets? It limits me to 4 tablets a month, no matter what the doctor prescribes, so I was actually better off getting the 50mg tabs. Cheapskate bastards:grr:

[DFLer4edu]

12. I would have thought this was satire if it hadn't came from yahoo