psoriasis drug

(calming music) - [elizabeth] todayyou're gonna be learning about how to choose the mosteffective and safe drugs for your healthcare dollar. a few housekeeping thingsbefore we do get started with the webinar. you will all remain onlisten only for the duration of the presentation. if you have any questionsfor our presenter or for me,

you can go ahead and typethem in your control panel in the questions bar atany time during the webinar and we will do a questionand answer portion at the the end of the presentation. so again, any time you have questions, when you think of them,you can always type them into your questions barin your control panel. and we will answer questions at the end. you will be able to get intouch with me at the end

of the webinar if youwant a copy of the slides. you also will be able to viewa recording of the webinar, that should be availableon the needymeds website probably the latest by friday of this week but probably in the next few days, we'll have that available,the recording available of the webinar. so without further ado,we will get started. my name's elizabethmessenger, i'm the director

of outreach education here at needymeds. today we're really excited to be having, co-presenting a webinarwith consumer reports best buy drugs. you may have noticedin the past few months that you've seen some of their information up on our website. we do a partnership andyou may notice next to them on some of the medicationsome more information provided

by consumer reports. we're going to be talkingabout that a little bit today. we're excited to be partneringand working together to share more information,resources with you. so, today we have gingerskinner presenting. she's an associate writerfor consumer reports she has worked for best buydrugs since the project's early days and currently writes primarily about drug safety issuesand manages the project's

social media efforts. i'm gonna go ahead andlet ginger take it away and again we'll do somequestion and answer at the end of the presentation. so, ginger. - [ginger] hi, thank you, elizabeth. hello everyone, thank youfor joing today's webinar. as elizabeth said, i amginger skinner from best buy, an associate writer with best buy drugs.

and i'm glad to be presenting today on lowering your medication costs. let's begin. many americans, even thosewho have insurance coverage, spend more than they need toon prescription medications. those who regularlytake a prescription drug spend an average of $758 a year, according to a 2012 consumerreports best buy drugs annual prescription-drug poll.

what's more, consumers arefacing major challenges affording their medications. according to our prescriptiondrug poll in 2012, 59% of americans under age 65, 84% of uninsured americans under age 65, have taken an action toreduce their drug costs. some of those actions includespending less on groceries, spending less on their families, using their credit cards more often

and postponing paying other bills. just so they can afford topay for their medication. how do we come in? well, consumer reports bestbuy drugs is a public education project that offersunbiased, evidence-based drug information and providesconsumers with a trusted resource for help in choosing the best,most affordable medication. the project informsconsumers about drug choices; provides recommendations, wecall those best buys, based

on safety, effectiveness and cost; and promotes conversationsbetween consumers and their healthcare providers. we provide reports and information on all these conditions and more. so, you'll see on this list,we have allergies, asthma, heart attacks, highcholesterol, migraines. so, there are numerous conditions here and some that we couldn'tfit on this slide.

best best drugs helps consumersby translating complicated scientific studies comparing drugs; including drug cost in recommendations; disseminating to the public for free; and guiding both consumersand healthcare providers to make decisions based on science and not based onadvertising and marketing. why do we do this? because we polled consumersand we found out that consumers

want to know about risk, theywant to be offered options and they want to knowabout cost when it comes to their prescriptiondrugs and other healthcare. so, how do we get started? we'll first begin by visiting www.crbestbuydrugs.org that link will take you to this page, our home page for best buy drugs. and you'll see that, it'sunder consumerreports.org,

a brand that you may allready be familiar with. once you reach that page, you can search best buy drug reportsby condition, drug name or drug category. for example, if youselect "high cholesterol", you'll be directed to thedrug report page for statins which are cholesterol lowering drugs. all drug report pages offera summary of recommendations, including lifestylechanges and potential risks

to discuss with your doctor, plus best buys based oneffectiveness, safety and cost. in addition, if you clickon the compare drugs tab, you'll see drug prices ineach drug category, dosing information, best buys and more. based on effectiveness, safety and cost for high cholesterol, bestbuy drugs recommends generic lovastatin or pravastatin, if you need to loweryour "bad" cholesterol

by less than 30%. generic simvastatin if ldlreduction of 30% or more is needed and/or if you haveheart disease or diabetes, or if you've had a heartattack or have acute coronary syndrome with normal ldl levels. and we also recommend generic atorvastatin if you have had a heartattack or have acute coronary syndrome with highly elevated ldl. so, that's an example ofthe information you'll get

by clicking on best buy drugs support. in addition to thepages i just showed you, for each drug category, thereare also free comprehensive downloadable reports. here's an example of one ofthose downloadable reports for high cholesterol and heart disease. these reports provide an in-depth look at each drug category, and the evidence behind best buy drugstreatment recommendations.

and these reports helpyou start a conversation with your doctor about the best treatment not just for your conditionbut also for your wallet. in addition to those reports,best buy drugs also offers cost-saving analyses and tips. here's one of our most recent reports: surprising ways to cut your drug costs. in which we recommendsome tips on how to cut your drug costs.

for example, trying an otc drug rather than a prescriptiondrug for some problems. not automatically using your insurance. taking advantage of thenew health care law. asking for the lowest available price at your pharmacy. using your insurer's preferred pharmacy or mail order service. and considering treatment in stages.

we also offer drugstore comparisons. here in our pharmacy study, we took a look at various retail pricesand found that costco was the least expensiveoverall, and a few independent pharmacies came in even cheaper. in addition, the onlineretailers healthwarehouse.com and familymeds.com alsohad very low prices. but in terms of all the retailers, cvs, rite aid and targethad the highest prices.

we also offer risks vs. benefits reports on off-label drugs, drug safety updates, and money savings guides to share with your health care provider. here you'll see one onprescription assistance programs where we walk you through what a pap is and how you can be, found outif you're eligible for one. all best buy drugs resources are available

in english and spanish. consumer reports publishes an annual best drugs for less magazine. and we recently launchedthe mobile version of that magazine. free and designed forboth iphone and ipad. you can find it on itunes.com. you get the same information you would get from the best drugs for less magazine

just at your fingertips. and it highlights forexample, six ways to save on the drug you need, and otcvs. prescription medication. best buy drugs also offersa free monthly e-newsletter to keep you up to date on thebest drugs for your condition, drug safety issues and off-label drug use. thanks to a partnership with needymeds, you can now access consumerreports best buy drugs recommendations on needymeds.org.

you simply search for themedications you're taking and click on the "druginfo" logo for that drug. here we selected ace inhibitor,accupril, and we clicked on drug info and it took us to this page. this is the drug reportsummaries page for that drug. we also were able to accessthe drug pricing information including cr best buys. finally, here are some examplesof potential savings based on best buy drugs' recommendations.

for heartburn, you can save$225 per month by switching from nexium to omeprazole,the generic of prilosec otc. for joint pain, you can save$177 per month by switching from celebrex to naproxen,the generic of aleve. and finally, for seasonalallergies, you can save $113 per month by switchingfrom xyzal to loratadine, the gereric of clairitin. interested in learning more? please visit www.crbestbuydrugs.org,

follow us on twitter, like us on facebook, sign up for our free monthly e-newsletter, or contact our principalinvestigator, doris peter at dpeter@consumer.org or by phone at 914-378-2977. that concludes our presentationand now i'll take it back to elizabeth so that wecan open up for questions. - [elizabeth] great,thank you so much, ginger.

- [ginger] you're welcome. - [elizabeth] if youwould please like to start typing in some questions. we will go ahead and answeras many as we can get to. so in your questions barin your control panel. we did have a question about the slides. you all should be getting,will be getting an email with my contact information. you can always email me toget a copy of the slides.

i can provide those to you. if you wanted to justwrite that email down now, it'll just beelizabeth@needymeds.org, so that's e-l-i-z-a-b-e-t-h @needymeds.org and i'll be happy to provide you a copy of ginger's slides. i did just want to mentionagain that you will, as ginger mentioned, be able to see a lot of this information onthe needymeds website.

so you can keep a look out for that. we also have been helpingto share their information by sending out theirbooklets so it's possible if you requested our brochuresand drug discount cards in the past or if youplan to, you'll get some of those booklets in the mail as well, to pass out to those that you are serving or for your own use as well. so, you can watch out for that.

we're really excited tobe able to be working with consumer reports. it's important for us to be able to share as much information on as many resources that are out there to helppeople with their medication and health care costs. it's a really greatresource to know about. okay, so we will startgetting into some questions. ginger, i'm not sure howmuch you know about this

but there's a question aboutthose who are on a medicare part c plan or medicare advantage, ways to cut their costwithout having to take expensive medication,any thoughts on that? - [ginger] can you repeat that question? - [elizabeth] those who areon medicare with a part c plan or medicare advantage, howcan they cut their costs of the drug without having to stop taking the expensive medication, any thoughts?

- [ginger] well, i don't haveany information specifically. this is something that i couldfollow up with the person about but i would say, a good thing to do isto work with your doctor to ask about generic alternatives. if you have been prescribed,sort of, pricier, brand named drugs, the best thing to do is speak with your doctor, have aheart to heart about costs and just really askyour doctor if there are

generic alternatives that arejust as safe and effective. so, that would be step one,and that would be step one for anyone. this information weprovide is not information to replace your doctor's advice but it is information thatcan be used as a guide in talking to your doctor. i would also encourage theperson who asked the question to visit our websitewww.crbestbuydrugs.org

and just to, you know,whatever condition they have, to click on that condition. either click on thedrug that they're taking and they'll be able to seethat we offer alternatives and advice to opening up that conversation with their doctor. - [elizabeth] yeah, and iwould also add, you know, you can always use the needymeds website as a resource as well.

- [ginger] right. - [elizabeth] there are somepatience assisted programs for those with medicare, not a ton, but they are out there. and we have, if you go toour diagnosis based assisted section kind of aftertalking to your doctor, maybe you're still lookingfor help with affording your cost, you can go tothat section of our website. look up your condition, youmight be able to find a group

or a foundation that willhelp you cover those costs. so, there are resources out there. i think it's justimportant, as ginger said, to have open conversationswith your doctor. and kind of look at all theresources that are out there including our websiteand the consumer reports best buy drugs website. okay, so the next questionis, your website, ginger, information taken into accountthe different insurance

plans and medicare plans. so again, i guess, lookingup resources specific to type of plan, can you do that? - [ginger] no, it doesn't really. there are within the largerdownloadable comprehensive reports, there isinformation on what's covered and what's not. again, it's another conversation, a way to open up that conversationwith your doctor.

but we don't really offerand i think these questions are really good andtimely being that tomorrow is open enrolment so i canunderstand where these questions are coming from. but we don't offer specificinformation on plans. however if you wanted todig a little bit deeper on the consumer reports website, there is an insurance section. so i would highly encourageanyone who's interested

in knowing a little bit more about part c or any other insurance issue to visit the, go to consumerreport.org and to click on health and insurance. and there's informationunder the insurance tab. but as far as best buydrugs, it's mostly gonna just evaluate the safety and effectiveness of the drug you're takingand then help guide your conversation withyour health care provider.

- [elizabeth] great, thank you. so, the question aboutif you do any connection, helping patients connect with people with the same condition, maybe you do it on your social media or onyour website, any where? - [ginger] i think the bestplace for that would be twitter. we have a pretty engaged community there of like minded people,well people like us, as well as consumers.

and, we do something, we do a news, i guess it can be a blog post under the hashtag ask the pharmacist. so, we ask people,consumers who are interested in learning more about drug prices or have questions about themedication they're taking or safety concerns. we tweet out the hashtagask the pharmacist and ask you to tweet usback with that same hashtag

with any questions you have. we can either answer thosequestions via twitter and in other cases, weanswer those questions by a blog post because wethink that's it's something that would be of concern toour larger, online community. so, we definitely encouragequestions via twitter. our handle is @crbestbuydrugs and also if you search facebook for consumer reports best buy drugs,

you'll find our facebookpage and we encourage the same questions and concerns there. and we respond pretty quickly, or as quickly as we can. taking into account, we also have to check with our medical advisersand make sure we're giving the most accurate information possible. - [elizabeth] great, there's a question about cancer specific drugs.

do you have a sectionfor that on the website? - [ginger] we don't, yet. i'm not sure if it's planned. it's a highly complicated area for us and we don't yet, it's notto say that we won't touch on that, but no, for now. - [elizabeth] okay. there's a question, ithink it was about a slide, i'm trying to see here.

did you have a slide aboutstrategies to control rx costs? - [ginger] hmm, should i go back, or... - [elizabeth] no, it'sokay, why don't you just, that person, why don't you just go ahead and you can email me and ican pass the question along to ginger. we're just not quitesure what you mean there. i actually had a question, ginger, how did best buy drugs get started?

how did consumer reportsdecide they were gonna start this kind of branchof consumer reports? - [ginger] okay, so, consumerreports launched in , we're located in new york but we also have a washington, d.c. office which is more of ouroffice that houses a lot of our advocacy work. consumer reports best buydrugs started as a very small project in d.c., an advocacy project.

working with state pilotprograms and sort of working with closely with outreach, sort of older americanson multiple medication. and, then the program movedto new york a few years later. and, we got a larger staffwhich is always a good thing. we were lucky to partnerwith some amazing, like minded organizations, which of course includes needymeds. we started working with experts from

the drug effectiveness review project which is also known as derp and that's based in, at the oregon health and science university. we don't actually dothe research in house. we work with experts atderp and derp analyzes and derp analyzes hundredsof studies on given classes of drugs to treat various conditions. as far as the pricing, the pricing data

is provided by wolterskluwer pharma solutions we also use data from the american society of health assistance pharmacists. best buy drugs is an extremelycollaborative project. which you know, wouldn't bewhat it is without a number of experts and other non-profits. a lot of times our topicsare consumer driven which we have questions from consumers. we take a deeper look andrealize that this is an area

of need and produce a report around that. so, we do encourage yourquestions and your feedback via twitter, facebook, our newsletter and of course, doris peter, who's our principle investigator, is another person that youcan contact with questions. so, yeah, i think that answers it. i kind of went all the way back. (laughing)

- [elizabeth] okay, well,it doesn't seem like we have any more questions. i'll give everyone another minute. again, you will get my contactinformation in an email if you would like to requesta copy of the slides. the recording of the webinarwill be up on our videos page on our website, as wellas our needymeds youtube page, probably again in the next few days. definitely by the end of the week.

you can always check that out. we do, needymeds doesregular webinars each month. so, you can go on ourwebinar page to register for upcoming sessions,they're always free. we do monthly webinars,going over our resources, as well as special topicwebinars like we had today, where we have another co-presenter come in and talk about the kindof resources and programs they're offering.

with that, let's see, there'sa question about getting your best buy drug brochure. so, we do give out thebooklet, so if you requested some materials from us,we could certainly send you some of those, some of their booklets. ginger, i don't know ifthey should contact doris for additional materials of yours? - [ginger] right, you can contact doris for that information.

some of the information, for example, the reports, there are longer reportsas well as two page reports that you can download from the site. if you have a printer, you canjust print that out yourself. if you're interested in,say, the best drug for less magazine, or any other material, the best thing to do would be to shoot doris peter an email.

- [elizabeth] okay, great,and yeah, i'm sure they'll be happy to send those out to you. as probably some of youknow, we're always happy to send out our materials as well. you can always get in touch with that or if you have any needymedsspecific questions, you can always get in touch with me. so, i appreciate you allattending this webinar. i hope that it was helpfuland informative for you

and i hope you all havea wonderful afternoon. so, thank you, very much, bye-bye. - [ginger] thank you, everyone, bye.