Georgia pharmacies are reporting difficulties applying drug company discounts to prescriptions following a hack on a key health tech platform last week.
The infiltration at a UnitedHealthcare affiliate in Minnesota has affected thousands of pharmacies around the country, disrupting the invoicing process with insurance carriers.
“It’s definitely affecting the workflow. The majority of the manufacturer coupons we run for patients on their brand name meds do not work, which costs money. The drugs are far more expensive without such discounts.” Georgia Pharmacy Association President-Elect Ben Ross spoke with Channel 2’s Tom Regan.
Ross, who runs eight pharmacies in southeast Georgia, provided an example of increasing pharmaceutical costs without industry discounts.
There’s a lady at one of my pharmacies who is on a headache medicine, and her insurance co-pay is more than a thousand dollars. The coupon reduces it to zero. So she really went from zero to more than a thousand dollars. Ross stated.
Ross stated that his organization is working to ascertain how many patients and pharmacies in Georgia have been harmed by the cyber-attack.
He claims that pharmacists are doing their best to guarantee that patients receive their medications, and that in certain circumstances, they are covering the coupon discount in the hopes of being reimbursed after technical issues are overcome.
One emergency physician exiting a Briarcliff Pharmacy on Clairmont Road in DeKalb County denounced the cyberattack.
“This is bad. First and foremost, medications are quite expensive. People who need the medicine, in addition to generics, require discounted medication so, if there is a stumbling block, whether due to insurance or the drugstore, it is a disaster. “Anyone who would do that should be prosecuted to the ninth degree.” Dr. Pat Meadors explained.
UnitedHealthcare said it is working as swiftly as possible to restore its systems and has notified law enforcement of the computer network attack.