RT Journal
A1 Brown T
T1 THe true cost of discounted medication programs
JF Archives of Internal Medicine
JO Archives of Internal Medicine
YR 2011
FD September 26
VO 171
IS 17
SP 1595
OP 1596
DO 10.1001/archinternmed.2011.411
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/archinternmed.2011.411
AB 
The recent research letter by Zhang et al1 calculated the potential savings to the patient, Medicare, and society with greater use of discounted medication programs. The authors suggest encouraging the use of these programs to the small proportion of patients who would achieve the greatest savings. The estimated cost savings to the patient is overstated because the cost to enroll in the discount program as well as the cost to travel to the additional pharmacy is not considered. The cost savings to Medicare is also inflated because the authors do not account for the donut hole, which will not be completely eliminated until 2020.