Patients who are annoyed they have to make a trip to the pharmacy for their medications after going to the doctor’s office might like this new growing trend. Physicians are getting authorization from state pharmacy boards to sell some prescription drugs — such as antibiotics, pain medication, and allergy medication — right in their office, wrote the Washington Post.
Only some states, such as Maryland and Virginia, allow doctors to sell prescription medications — the practice is banned in some other states.
Today, less than 10 percent of the nation’s doctors sell drugs in their offices. But a health care research firm estimates that the number of physicians selling drugs directly to patients may rise to 25 percent in the coming years, writes the Post.
“I see it as more of a patient convenience that saves a trip to the pharmacy and adds another reason why patients want to keep me as their doctor, ” said one physician who has been selling drugs in his office for several months.
The tradeoff of buying medication at the doctor’s office is that they’re usually more expensive. The doctor’s medications can also be very expensive for patients who have no drug coverage on their insurance plans. Even if a patient does have insurance, physicians can decide whether or not they accept the plan’s copayments. Doctors who sell drugs have control of how much they charge for them.
Some patient advocacy groups also argue doctors selling drugs could open the door for abuse.
But it’s hard to deny the convenience of buying drugs right in your doctor’s office. Who really wants to make an extra trip to the drug store?
Any thoughts about physicians selling prescription drugs out of their office or clinic?