Independent pharmacies question value of counties’ new drug card

PORT ANGELES – That new drug-discount card – the one saving people 13 percent to 34 percent on prescriptions – sounded too good to be true.

Independent pharmacy owners say it is.

The card, available since Saturday in Clallam County and coming Oct. 1 to Jefferson County, is part of a program advanced by the National Association of Counties and CVS Caremark, a pharmacy services company that fills or manages a billion prescriptions per year.

The Clallam County Rx card and its Jefferson County twin need no paperwork, no co-pay, no eligibility requirements – including age or illness – no sign-up fee and no limits.

Chinook Pharmacy, Forks’ independent druggist, accepts the Clallam County Rx card, and owner Chuck Carlson said he’s already seen about 20 people with it.

Prescriptions were already cheap at Chinook, however – so cheap that “we have loyal customers who’ve moved away, and we still mail them their prescriptions,” Carlson said.

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