The Role of Mail Service Pharmacies

Prologue: The escalating costs of prescription drugs and competition among pharmaceutical firms for customers are drawing the attention of policymakers, pharmacies, and individual and institutional purchasers. Mail order pharmacies recently have grown in prominence as a competitive alternative to the local community pharmacy. This article by Constance Horgan, Brigid Goody, David Knapp, and Leslye Fitterman explores the one-hundred-year history of mail service pharmacies and the role they play in providing prescription drugs to the elderly. The authors conducted a study of mail service pharmacies, which was mandated by Congress under the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act of 1988. Their survey reveals that the elderly account for nearly 57 percent of total sales of mail service pharmacies. At Brandeis University, Horgan is an associate research professor at the Bigel Institute for Health Policy, Heller Graduate School. She holds a doctorate in health policy and management from The Johns Hopkins University and served from 1980 to 1984 as a health services researcher at the National Center for Health Services Research and Health Care Technology Assessment. Brigid Goody, social science research analyst at the Health Care Financing Administration's Office of Research, received her master's degree in public health from Boston University. She is currently working on a doctoral degree in health policy and management from the Harvard School of Public Health. David Knapp is professor in pharmacy administration and acting dean of the School of Pharmacy at the University of Maryland. He received his doctorate in pharmacy administration from Purdue University. Since 1987, he has directed the Center on Drugs and Public Policy at the University of Maryland Graduate School. Leslye Fitterman, a policy fellow at the University of Maryland Center on Drugs and Public Policy, holds a master of science degree from the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy.