Mich. Blues plan pushes generic drugs

An insurer hopes to save at least $17 million a year in drug costs by increasing physician prescribing of generics.

By Julie A. Jacob, AMNews staff. Sept. 10, 2001.

Under pressure by its customers and its own bottom line to reduce costs, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan is launching an aggressive public relations campaign in October to increase physician, pharmacist and patient awareness of generics drugs.

Currently, about 38% of prescriptions filled for Michigan Blues patients are generics. If the public awareness campaign increases generic drug usage by even 1%, the insurer will save $17 million a year on prescription drug costs, said Richard Cole, a Michigan Blues spokesman.

Generics cost anywhere from 30% to 60% less than their brand-name equivalents, said Glen Perry, a pharmacist and the Michigan Blues' director of pharmacy services.

Soaring prescription drug costs motivated the insurer to develop the campaign, Cole said.

"Drug costs are going up at a rate of 20% a year, and a substantial percentage of that is related to the fact that people are using expensive brand-name drugs instead of generics," Cole said.

"This is not about bashing brand-name drugs," Cole added. "It is about bashing the technique that companies are using to market brand-name drugs."

In addition, General Motors and the Metropolitan Detroit Chamber of Commerce asked the Michigan Blues, which insures 4.7 million people in the state, to increase awareness of generic drugs, Cole said.

The main component of the campaign will be a competition among the pharmacies that participate in the Michigan Blues' network.

It will reward the pharmacy that fills the greatest percentage of generic drug prescriptions by featuring that pharmacy, along with a physician, in an advertising campaign scheduled to start in January featuring the slogan "Generics: the unadvertised brand." [...]