GENERICS

GENERICS,

In my line of work I have discovered some relatively interesting information about the health care system.

* For starters physicians get paid more if they prescribe generics for their patients
* Second of all pharmacies get paid more if they give the patients generics
* Third of all, generics aren't always as cheap as patients claim: if it is the first generic out there for that specific line of drugs (for instance the first drug to go generic for allergies) the price of generic is likely to still be very expensive and remain expensive until several other types of that drug go generic
* Next, physicians are monitored and graded based on how many generics they prescribe patients. This means if a doctor prescribes a branded drug the physician doesn't get credit for it and therefore doesn't get paid for it. Meaning patients will often times go home with generic forms of certain drugs rather than the branded drug and will not get as great of results because of this.
* Also, a pharmacist might take a script that was written to do and break it down into "generics" which is often times not actually a generic but can be more costly because they broke down the medication into several types of "generics" meaning you end up paying more.

As much as a physician hates that you research drug options it is actually a really smart thing to do. It helps keep the patient more involved in their own health care and treatment.