Walgreens Offers Service to Seniors, Profits to Rep. Petri

Last night while watching Monk (starring Green Bay's own Tony Shaloub, I came across a Walgreen's add touting a new service to help Medicare recipients find out which of the many programs out there carry the drugs that the customer is taking.

From the Walgreen's press release:

Pharmacists at the nation's largest drugstore chain are now using a new tool to help seniors navigate through their Medicare prescription drug benefit (Part D) options. Walgreens has developed an application that generates a printed personalized report listing a senior's medications covered under available plans, along with each plan's premium, co-pay and deductible. The service is available exclusively at any of more than 5,000 Walgreens pharmacies nationwide.

Now, I don't fault Walgreens for this, presumably helpful, service. It is good business to offer something like this. However, I do fault Congress for making a program so complex that it needs this much information to select a program. As Walgreens continues:

With the enrollment period well under way and the start of benefits right around the corner, more seniors and caregivers are facing the complexities of the new Medicare drug benefit and discovering a need for help.

"Seniors are being inundated with information from different Medicare prescription plans," said Huonker. "Research confirms they are confused and prefer speaking to someone in person for help. The report available in our pharmacies allows seniors to compare the plans in a simple, straightforward format to help them select the best match for their prescription needs."

What Walgreen's doesn't mention is that this report is only for the program as it exists at that moment? What do I mean by that. The dirty little secret of this program that noone is talking about - providers of this service can change the drugs covered with only a week's notice, however recipients can only change plans once a year.

This is not Walgreen's fault, it is a bad plan put together in congress that Walgreen's will make a lot of money from.

Bless them and their profits.

So, why do I bring this up? As a reminder of something I have mentioned before. Our Rep. Tom Petri is a large holder of Walgreen's stock (click and go to page 5 - you will see he still holds $5-25 million).

Tom Petri, in Dec 2003:

Without question, the most significant domestic legislative accomplishment in 2003 was congressional passage of Medicare drug reform.

This was a vote that passed by one. Therefore, Petri was the deciding vote on this legislation. Legislation from which he stands to gain.

The Northwestern took this opinion in 2004 year (in different prose than I would have used):

Petri, who owns at least $5 million in Walgreen's stock, should have abstained from voting on the Medicare reform bill last fall... independent research quoted in the Walgreen's annual report showed it had great interest in the 75 to 100 million new prescriptions that this law would create... this conflict of interest should have been cause for him to abstain.

Mr. Petri, I urge you to do the right thing and either introduce legislation that will either allow Medicare to directly negotiate for prices, a program that would save people money on medication, or remove this glaring conflict of interest and sell off your stock in Walgreens.

Go here to contact Rep. Petri and urge him to do the right thing.