Local Pharmacies Fight for Mail Order Legislation

With the full support of East End pharmacies, a bill has been introduced in Albany to prohibit insurance companies from requiring consumers to purchase drugs by mail order.

Local pharmacies, which have organized as the Peconic Independent Pharmacy Association, say since the beginning of the year they have lost an increasing number of customers of maintenance drugs because insurance companies won’t pay unless the pharmacy is in its network — as most chains are — or the customer uses mail order. The bill also prohibits insurance companies from charging higher co-pays when mail order is not used.

“I’ve had many customers who have told me that they’d rather come here and talk to me about their medication than wait for the postman,” said Robert E. Grisnik, the owner of in Southampton Village and the “instigator” of the loosely organized PIPA, which now has 15 members.

“Our customers should have freedom of choice,” he said.

Grisnik and his colleagues participated in what he says was a statewide initiative by independent pharmacies.

So far, PIPA has collected 5,000 signatures on a petition to support the bill, which was introduced by state Sen. George Maziarz, R-Newfane, of the south shore of Lake Ontario. Local legislators quickly signed on as co-sponsors. An identical bill was introduced in the Assembly; both bills are in committee.

The bill does not affect users of Medicaid; the recently passed budget includes a provision exempting them from mail order requirements.

State Sen. Kenneth P. LaValle, R-Port Jefferson, supports the bill. “People live in communities. There are community pharmacists. They build relationships, give counseling and know the client,” he said by phone. “Community pharmacists truly service customers in a way most people feel comfortable. Some people like mail order and some do it by choice, but there should be a level playing field.”

Such a field will never exist according to Paul Macielak, the president and CEO of New York Health Plan Association, a lobbying group for insurance companies.

“I don’t think there’s a level playing field,” he said during a recent phone interview, “because the locals have a cost disadvantage, and I don’t know how they’re going to overcome it.”

The bill only affects half of New York’s population, Macielak said, as the other half is covered by union-negotiated benefits or are self-insured, like some school districts. Prescription drugs are a rider on all policies, he said, and such plans include mail order because it has been determined, by the end of negotiation, that it’s cheaper.

As far as freedom of choice goes, Macielak said consumers do have a choice because they can choose between using mail order and paying lower co-pays while getting a 90-day supply, or going to a local pharmacy and paying more for a 30-day supply.

“It’s an incentive to use mail order because it’s cheaper,” he said.

Paulette Ofrias, an owner of the Southold Pharmacy and the Shelter Island Heights Pharmacy, said using a local pharmacy is safer.

“We don’t know who is filling the prescriptions. Are they licensed?” she said. “They won’t know about drug interactions. And what if they send the wrong drug or it arrives damaged?”

Macielak said he doesn’t know of any mistakes made by mail order pharmacies, and that mail order plans include 24/7 phone support.

“The locals don’t have that,” he said, adding that the computers used to fill the prescriptions are bound to make fewer mistakes than human beings.

Misdosing or bad drug interactions are less likely because the mail order provisions only apply to maintenance drugs, he said. “And if you want, you can go to your pharmacy the first couple of times.”

Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., I-Sag Harbor, who has signed on as a co-sponsor, said he has been hearing complaints about mail order from his constituents, but adds there’s a business angle as well.

“There should be some allowance for local small pharmacies doing business in New York, rather than having to mail out of state,” he said.

Assemblyman Dan Losquadro, R-Shoreham, is also a co-sponsor of the bill.

In addition to lack of choice and safety issues, what’s concerning independent pharmacies the most, said Vincent Alibrandi, the owner and pharmacist at in East Hampton, is that they’re losing business. “We try to maintain as many customers as we can,” he said. “But we’ll see a drop if things go this route.”

"They’re forcing them to go through the mail," said Frank Silecchia, owner of in Hampton Bays. "I have a woman, 76 years old, who has a hard time getting around, and she wanted a refill twice. I'm the one who had to tell her she has to mail away."