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Automated controls are important

Costs vary depending on where employees shop, but three factors determine the price of prescription drugs:

  1. The drug ingredient cost: how much a pharmacist pays to buy a drug
  2. The markup: the amount the pharmacist charges for a drug over and above what it costs to buy it. This is usually set as a percentage
  3. The dispensing fee, or professional fee as it is sometimes called: what the pharmacist charges to fill a prescription

Since there are no limits on markups and dispensing fees—and they are applied to every prescription—automated controls are important.

We help curb unnecessary spending through automated limits on dispensing fees, markup, and through negotiated drug cost agreements with pharmaceutical companies (Quebec residents may be subject to different product availability as a result of RAMQ)