Tuesday, October 30, 2007

While some physicians have begun making drug sales to patients, others are experimenting with another way of distributing medications: dispensing an initial course of a generic drug for free, with the patient's insurer picking up the tab.

More than 300 physician practices in 10 states, including New Jersey and Massachusetts, have signed on to an Aetna program that puts dispensing machines, stocked with generic drugs, in their offices. With Aetna's model, patients get either one month, or one course, of drugs free; subsequent prescriptions are filled with a co-pay at the patient's pharmacy.

In September, New Jersey insurer AmeriHealth announced a pilot program involving 19 physician offices and the same kinds of drug-vending machines that Aetna uses.

-- Francesca Lunzer Kritz