Working within the constraints of a county budget can be challenging; especially when a large portion has to go to the medical care of inmates in your jail. We’ve found that in most county jail medical budgets, the largest expense is the pharmacy bill! But that doesn’t have to be the case. There are several ways to keep medication costs low, while still providing excellent healthcare.
Fromularies
What is a formulary? It is an official list of medicines that may be prescribed within a facility. If you don’t have one of these, you are losing money, spending more than you need to, and eating away at your budget. Formularies are used in hospitals, medical clinics, and by insurance companies. They are an official, organized way to help medical providers know what medications can and should be prescribed. There are many ways to treat the same condition; formularies keep treatment consistent, safe, and affordable. We specialize in helping facilities create, use, and implement medication formularies to keep you under budget.
Generics
Generic medications are drug products that are comparable to a brand name drug in form, strength, quality and performance, characteristics, and intended use. In other words, they are the same drug, but much more affordable.
The FDA reported that in 2010 alone, patients saved $158 billion by using generic drugs vs brand name drugs. If you are not consistently using generics in your facilities, you are losing money. There are very few reasons to use brand name drugs, especially for common alignments found in jails.
Another example is generic ibuprofen vs brand name Advil. You can find the exact same active ingredient (ibuprofen 200 mg) for a whopping 72% cheaper if you buy generic vs brand name! In one example brand name Advil was $9.85 while an equivalent bottle of generic ibuprofen was only $2.36. That is a huge difference for the same thing. Multiply this across all medications used in your facility and you’ll see a big $$$$$ difference!
We have found that when community providers who don’t understand correctional medicine, provide care in jails, they don’t think about this. They are accustomed to patients with insurance (which covers a majority of drug costs), but in jail the only insurance is that of the county coffers.
Conclusion
You can save money today by simply implementing a pharmaceutical formulary and using generic drugs. We can show you how. We understand budgets, we understand good healthcare, and we understand jails.