Last night I wrote a blog about the huge difference in prices for the same drug from one pharmacy to another. Specifically, I mentioned simvastatin 40 mg., the generic drug for Zocor, where I had been quoted a high price of $152 for 30 pills at Target at Dadeland Station near my north Pinecrest home to a low price of $12.77 for 100 pills of the same drug at Costco, where you do not even need to be a member in order to use the pharmacy.
Out of curiosity, this morning I decided to look at all cities in Miami-Dade County on the Florida Attorney General web site, http://myfloridarx.com/rx.nsf/finder?, to see the highest and lowest prices there. This site is updated monthly. To my astonishment, I found both were located in Hialeah. The lowest price was $28.04 for 30 tablets of simvastatin 40 mg. at Cali Pharmacy & Discount. The highest price listed was — hold on to your hat — $604.23 for the same 30 tablets at Madahema Pharmacy. That’s 15,774% of the Costco price of $12.77 for 100 tablets! Thank you Costco!
Just goes to show you that you really do need to check prices before you hurry off to your nearest discount (you thought!) pharmacy.