Drugstores’ slippery slope
July 29th, 2008 by 
David E. Williams of the Health business blog
When the debate was raging in Massachusetts about whether to allow MinuteClinics in drug stores I heard some Massachusetts doctors talking about a clever plan to put CVS and its ilk on the defensive: institute a rule barring health care providers from selling tobacco products. Boston Mayor Menino picked up the idea, and based on today’s Wall Street Journal Health Blog post it sounds as though the idea has some resonance.
I don’t like the protectionist angle that would keep drug stores from opening clinics, but the idea of restricting cigarette availability isn’t a bad one. As Health Blog reports, CVS hasn’t ruled out getting rid of cigarettes. On the other hand, it’s a slippery slope.
Drug stores sell a lot of dangerous (or at least unhealthy) products including junk food, soft drinks, herbal medications, insecticides, children’s toys with phthalates, magazines advocating dangerous behaviors, and even prescription drugs with questionable safety profiles. Not in Massachusetts, but elsewhere, drugstores sell alcohol.
If I were a drugstore chain I wouldn’t give in too quickly to product category bans.
Posted in Policy and politics | 
2 Comments »
July 30th, 2008 at 10:23 am
Great post David. Also, many pharmacies still put the “baby” aspirin, in the baby products section. This might seem logical, but because of Reye’s syndrome, children (and babies) shouldn’t be given aspirin at all. (The use of aspirin in kids has been replaced Tylenol and ibuprofen.) So-called “baby” aspirin (81 mg/pill) is now used mostly for adults as a preventative treatment related to cardiovascular risks. So why do pharmacies still put it on the shelf next to appropriate OTC pain medicines for children? This is really a public health risk – next time your in a pharmacy check it out. And if you see baby aspirin where it shouldn’t be, then talk to the store manager and the pharmacist on duty….. OK – I’ll get off my soap box now.
August 14th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
[...] David Williams from Health Business Blog has a great post about doctors who want to outlaw drug store clinics by making a ban on the sale of tobacco products at facilities that also provide health care. Our health care system is in peril, people can’t afford care, 47 million people are uninsured… but there’s a big group of people in the health care industry with a very vested interest in keeping the status quo. Sad but true. Unfortunately, these in-store clinics don’t seem to be faring too well just yet. SmartCare just closed 15 clinics here in Colorado last month, for what appears to be financial reasons. The clinics were in Wal Mart stores, and were staffed by nurse practitioners who treated minor ailments for a flat $65 fee. They were great for people without health insurance, people who didn’t have time to wait for an opening at a doctor’s office, or those who needed an appointment outside of normal business hours. But it was too good to be true – the operating costs turned out to be higher than expected. Maybe they just needed better financial management, or maybe this just isn’t a feasible sort of program. We’ll have to wait and see if another agency chooses to set up shop in the Wal Mart stores that have been vacated by SmartCare. But if the clinics can operate successfully, provide a service to patients, keep costs reasonable, and take walk-in patients without health insurance, they could be a great addition to our health care system. I’m not impressed with traditional care providers who take aim at these clinics and try to find fancy legal ways to keep all of the business to themselves. [...]