*OT: Connecticut Attorney General Launches Web Site Comparing State Pharmacy Drug Prices

[Guest guest]

This seems to be a great idea. --Deb

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Prescription Drugs | Connecticut Attorney General Launches Web Site

Comparing State Pharmacy Drug Prices [Feb 14, 2005]

From Connecticut. Attorney General Launches Web Site Comparing State

Pharmacy Drug Prices

The Connecticut attorney general's office on Thursday launched a Web

site that compares the prices of 38 commonly prescribed drugs at

pharmacies statewide, the Hartford Courant reports. The Web site, which

can be accessed through the attorney genera l's main site, allows state

residents to search for drug prices by town or zip code. The information

is provided by pharmacies to the state Department of Social Services,

which monitors drug prices. The site does not include price information on

all drugs at all pharmacies in a given area.

Attorney General Blumenthal (D) said the site is a work in

progress but added that he hopes eventually to include more medications,

as well as the prices of drugs sold in Canada and by approved Internet

retailers. " If nothing else, maybe we can start a price war among

pharmacies, " Blumenthal said, noting that the site could save uninsured

people " hundreds, maybe thousands of dollars. " He said, " The disparities

[in prices among stores] are truly amazing and alarm ing. " Margherita

Giuliano, executive vice president of the Connecticut Pharmacists

Association, criticized the Web site, saying, " People are treating drugs

like a commodity, and you shouldn't do that. You can't shop for drugs

like you would for gas " (Hathaway, Hartford Courant, 2/11).

Deborah Hobson Leech

dleech@...