Maytag mail-order pharmacy costs cut by 90% after re-emphasis of community pharmacy in Newton, Iowa.

Executive Summary

MAYTAG MONTHLY MAIL-SERVICE Rx BILLS ARE ABOUT $4,000, down from approximately $50,000 before the company eliminated its mail-order pharmacy program as part of a patient-focused pharmaceutical care plan, Maytag Benefits Consultant William Ward told the Ohio Pharmaceutical Seminar in Columbus April 22. Ward labeled the company's decision to contract with a mail-order firm in 1986 "without consulting our pharmacy community" a "mistake." With the de-emphasis of mail-order, "we have a single pharmacy that's managing [an] individual's care, which really makes a lot of sense, and in hindsight we should have gone to the pharmacy community in 1986," Ward said.