COLUMBUS, Ohio — One Pickerington pharmacy is working to help customers cut costs on some commonly prescribed prescription medications by operating without the use of insurance companies.
Jeanie Illian, a Pickerington resident, said her insurance wanted to charge her more than $200 for her husband’s medication, so she called Freedom Pharmacy. According to its website, Freedom Pharmacy is a self-pay pharmacy that specializes in "compounding prescriptions."
“He said it’s $22," Illian said. "I saved $200."
Pharmacist Nate Hux started Freedom Pharmacy in Pickerington nearly two years ago out of concern about the inflated prices many pharmacies and insurance companies are charging.
“We are just transparent. The price is what it is. We are not afraid to show everybody what we paid,” Hux said.
In addition to the self-pay pharmacy, Hux also owns a traditional pharmacy next door, so he is able to see and compare the differences in cost. Freedom Pharmacy mostly sells generic drugs.
Hux said the copay from insurance for an arthritis drug, Celebrex, came back as $141, but when he filled the same prescription and quantity at Freedom Pharmacy - the cost was $23.
Freedom Pharmacy, the only of its kind in Ohio, operates outside the insurance world. Customers self-pay without the help of their insurance company.
The pharmacy is only licensed in Ohio, which restricts it from shipping drugs out of state.
The example this pharmacy sets prompts many to ask why there aren’t more Freedom Pharmacies across the country.
“The reason why there are not more freedom pharmacies is that most pharmacists are scared,” Hux said.
He said they are scared of leaving a corporate model where pharmacists are incentivized to buy low and sell high.
Antonio Ciaccia, who runs a Columbus company called 3 Axis advisors that investigates prescription drug pricing, said inflating the price of prescription drugs is a "time-honored tradition."
Ciaccia explained that drug prices began to change when Pharmacy Benefit Managers or PBM’s who acted on behalf of customers to lower drug prices became profiteers.
“Overpriced medications are often preferred by PBM’s when much cheaper alternatives are sitting there collecting dust on the pharmacy shelves,” he said.
In a recent case in Ohio, Attorney General Dave Yost sued OptumRX for alleged price gouging demanding it repays the state $15 million dollars.
The company denied wrongdoing.
This isn't the first case alleging wrongdoing in a pharmaceutical company in Ohio.
In March 2021, Yost sued Centene Corp. alleging the pharmacy benefit manager overbilled the Ohio Department of Medicaid for pharmacy services it provided.
The company agreed to pay Ohio $88.3 million for overcharges.
In July 2020, Yost filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Ohio Highway Patrol Retirement System accusing Express Scripts of multiple contract breaches that enabled the company to pocket millions in overcharges.
This case is pending.
Hux believes his pharmacy is a model for the rest of the country and is based on the same idea behind Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drugs.