Safeway Pharmacy ordered to stop Air Miles reward program

[Regulator75]

Personally, it does kinda suck. As I've been getting 7X Air Miles every time I get my order filled. Just today, I was awarded 168 Air Miles on a $488 order. If I had my way, I wouldn't be on any medications, however the extra bonus of Air Miles always helped a bit.

http://calgary.ctvnews.ca/safeway-fi...cies-1.1789631

A decision by the Alberta College of Pharmacists to stop the practice of allowing patients to collect rewards on medication rewards has resulted in Safeway, the grocery store chain which is now owned by Sobey’s, taking the college to court.

According to the college, patients should not consider incentives, including Air Miles, when selecting where to purchase their medication. There is fear among some pharmacists that patients may attempt to purchase more medication than they require in order to obtain reward miles.
Safeway claims they’re providing a valuable service with Air Miles. The reward program brings people into their pharmacies which is a positive step in ensuring people receive the medication they require.

A sign at a Safeway pharmacy explains the company's opposition to a decision on the future of reward programs at pharmacies
“What we've found is patients are generally more adherent, they actually build stronger relationships with our pharmacists when these types of benefits are in place,” explains Chad Rieger of Safeway. “We found with Air Miles that we’ve actually seen an increase in frequency of fills, so patients are more adherent to their prescriptions or filling them when they should.”

http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Co...882/story.html

The Coalition for Consumer Choice launched a petition this week calling on the provincial government to overturn a recent decision by the Alberta College of Pharmacists to ban pharmacies from awarding Air Miles and other loyalty programs.

The “I Earned It” petition, launched Tuesday, already has more than 11,000 signatures. The ban is slated to go into effect June 10.

The newly formed group is led by Sobeys Inc., which also plans to launch a legal challenge against the college, and includes Safeway pharmacies, AIR MILES Reward Program, the Consumers’ Association of Canada and the Chronic Pain Association of Canada.

“Most of our members do take medications on a long-term basis, so this does impact them and their quality of life,” said Roxanne Stewart, vice-president of the Chronic Pain Association of Canada. “Most look at this (loyalty programs) as a little perk that you might get when you’re in a bad spot.

“(The college) haven’t been able to present any objective evidence that says people are abusing that or that it is impacting their health in any way,” Stewart added.

[J epworth]

“(The college) haven’t been able to present any objective evidence that says people are abusing that or that it is impacting their health in any way,” Stewart added.

First thing I was thinking, the College needs to come forth with actual evidence that has people abusing their prescriptions, say do more pain prescriptions get refilled at Safeway pharmacies, and control to look for same population and how they dispense their medication from other pharmacies (Is overall health higher for x illness when dispensing from pharmacies without loyalty programs, etc.).

At the same time this quote:

A sign at a Safeway pharmacy explains the company's opposition to a decision on the future of reward programs at pharmacies
“What we've found is patients are generally more adherent, they actually build stronger relationships with our pharmacists when these types of benefits are in place,” explains Chad Rieger of Safeway. “We found with Air Miles that we’ve actually seen an increase in frequency of fills, so patients are more adherent to their prescriptions or filling them when they should.”

needs to be backed by evidence as well, does loyalty programs actual improve adherence to medications? It's a good study to tackle, problems with adherence is a big public health issue, leads to carriers of diseases, antibiotic resistance etc. It's one thing to get evidence that people fill their prescriptions more often when loyalty programs are in place, but do they actual then take the medication? If they aren't actually taking more medication, it's just a possible unfair competitive advantage for the pharmacy.

[photon]

Originally Posted by fotze

I have little doubt Safeway is not cheap because of these airmiles.

And Safeway looks cheap compared to Shoppers.

My wife has a plan now so I just go to the Shoppers because it is convenient, but when I had to pay out of pocket Shoppers was 50% more than Costco for the same medication. I could get 3 weeks worth at Costco for the cost of 2 weeks at Shoppers.

As for Air Miles, I guess I can see the College of Pharmacists argument but yeah evidence either way would be good.

[GP_Matt]

Perhaps Street Pharm can weigh in as I assume it is the same in BC.

My understanding is this is a result of a vote from pharmacists on the motion at their annual general meeting. If I had to guess I would say that companies like Safeway and Shoppers don't send their pharmacists to the meeting in very large numbers so the meeting is mostly attended by small independent operators who are quite happy to pass motions that limit the advantages of the big companies.

They likely have enough members to carry the vote if they encouraged attendance.

[Buff]

People choose pharmacies based on rewards programs? I guess I'm backwards thinking. I chose the pharmacy closest to my house.

[troutman]

Isn't an Air Mile = $0.07 ?

[Bigtime]

Rabid Air Miles collectors will travel far and wide to collect their precious points. It's insane sometimes.

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by Buff

People choose pharmacies based on rewards programs? I guess I'm backwards thinking. I chose the pharmacy closest to my house.

When you have hundreds of dollars of meds per month that are covered by insurance and you can get some sort of freebie from those purchases you bet people will shop at specific stores.

I know an older couple who has all their meds paid for and they fill at Safeway for the Airmiles. Their meds provide enough Airmiles for two return flights each to Vancouver Island per year so that is certainly a nice perk.

[Minnie]

We were forced to go to Safeway in Chestermere, to purchase my daughter's biologic. The reasoning, from the insurance company, is that Safeway was soooo much cheaper and would save me money. Um yeah, not when I have to make about a 70 km round trip to get it. They said Shoppers was 'too expensive' - yeah, they charged an entire $11 more than Safeway, which we offered to pay so we didn't have to drive so far out of our way for ONE medication, but they refused. My husband's company just switched insurance providers who said they didn't give a crap where we got the med, so we immediately transferred the biologic back to Shoppers.

We never chose Shoppers for the loyalty program and getting points for the meds. Was it a bonus? Oh sure. But, we chose them because we got excellent service from them, for several years - our former insurance company was difficult, the funding for the meds was split 3 ways, and it was an all around pain in the ass, and they handled it all wonderfully. They were incredibly helpful with her meds and delivered to us a few times, when we couldn't leave the house. We also chose them because they are a national chain, and we figured that if we were ever away from home and a medication issue came up, the stores could perhaps communicate with each other more easily, to ensure we got the meds without any hassles (in case we had to transfer a med temporarily or something). When we first moved here, we got our prescriptions at the Co-op but they kept losing our insurance information, and a whole host of other problems, plus their hours sucked - so as soon as Shoppers opened here, we switched over to them, and have been with them 5 years.

As I said to the lady at the insurance, they really shouldn't have try to quantify it as a savings to me, because 70 km out of my way isn't any kind of savings, not over a paltry $11, that I was willing to pay.

I spoke with one pharmacist who said he knew of people holding back on picking up their meds because they were waiting for a 10x points event or something. I find that hard to believe - plus, I don't think you can get a 10x points bonus on prescriptions - those events are usually quite severely restricted as to what is eligible.

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by Minnie

I spoke with one pharmacist who said he knew of people holding back on picking up their meds because they were waiting for a 10x points event or something. I find that hard to believe

I don't, wouldn't be surprised especially in the case of "non-essential" type prescriptions.

The real amazing thing about Air Miles is just how much information they have on you and your buying habits. Crazy scary amounts of info.

[Minnie]

I find that pharmacist's statement hard to believe because to the best of my knowledge, prescription drugs are ineligible for those bonus points events at Shoppers. We spent nearly $20K in medication costs there since Jan 1/13 to now, and we never got bonus points on any of those meds - just the regular bonus points. So I think that pharmacist was full of crap with his statement - he said these people were holding back their heart meds so they could get them during bonus points events and get mega points, and again, I think he's full of it. The only thing we got bonus points on during bonus events was OTC stuff - for example, 10x the points if we bought a certain brand of vitamins (Life). Never for prescriptions.

But perhaps Street Pharmacist can qualify it further.

[Street Pharmacist]

I can't speak to Alberta, but BC did the same thing in December here.

Drug costs are under severe pressure. Part of the impetus to get this done is the marketplace has become infinitely more competitive and margins have all but completely disappeared.

However, it should not be the role of the college of pharmacists to administrate here. The power given to the college is specifically to protect the public and the profession by regulating members and making standards if practice that uphold integrity and enforce safety.


Specifically though, here in BC it was an abuse of power IMO. The college of pharmacy is an elected board, and the chair here ran specifically on getting rid of incentives (ie. Points). The reason for that is the only pharmacists engaged in voting are either independent pharmacy owners, or pharmacists working for them. They hate points.

There is no public safety argument in my pinion, but they made the same plea here. I've heard rumblings that the government is none to happy about this overreach as the MLAs are talking the brunt of the decision from their constituents.

The bylaw was upheld here as legal, only in the sense that the College does have the power, not that they should or acted in accordance with their mandate

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by Minnie

I find that pharmacist's statement hard to believe because to the best of my knowledge, prescription drugs are ineligible for those bonus points events at Shoppers. We spent nearly $20K in medication costs there since Jan 1/13 to now, and we never got bonus points on any of those meds - just the regular bonus points. So I think that pharmacist was full of crap with his statement - he said these people were holding back their heart meds so they could get them during bonus points events and get mega points, and again, I think he's full of it. The only thing we got bonus points on during bonus events was OTC stuff - for example, 10x the points if we bought a certain brand of vitamins (Life). Never for prescriptions.

But perhaps Street Pharmacist can qualify it further.

There was no specific rules, except you cannot promote a specific prescription product. Shoppers could have said for example 10x points on all prescriptions today, but not 10x points on Morphine only

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by fotze

That's what I have been thinking. It sounds like the Safeway/Shoppers market share was getting too large and steps were taken to reduce it.

Never a fan when a governing body throws the 'safety' or 'think of the children' justification up.

Shoppers market share in Alberta has been growing tremendously, not sure about Safeway. Independent has been shrinking for decades.

I don't think the market share was the biggest reason. I think it's part self righteousness (I didn't go to school to give out cheap incentive points) and part precedent as it's been done successfully in BC

[GGG]

This bugs me as it is a anti consumer move and I can see one health benefit as it encourages people to go to one place for their medications which should have better tracking.

On the other had when Sobeys creates a fake commuity group called Collition for Consumer choice it bugs me. They should call it collition for Sobeys and Shoppers profits.

So I don't like everyone involved.

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by GGG

This bugs me as it is a anti consumer move and I can see one health benefit as it encourages people to go to one place for their medications which should have better tracking.

On the other had when Sobeys creates a fake commuity group called Collition for Consumer choice it bugs me. They should call it collition for Sobeys and Shoppers profits.

So I don't like everyone involved.

Shoppers isn't fighting it I don't think.

I can't speak for Alberta, but we actually got busier here after the changes as less people went to Safeway for Airmiles and chose based on service/convenience which is where shoppers dominates

[Minnie]

Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist

There was no specific rules, except you cannot promote a specific prescription product. Shoppers could have said for example 10x points on all prescriptions today, but not 10x points on Morphine only

Very weird - because I just called our Shoppers guy and he said there is absolutely NO bonus points events that prescription meds qualify for. We would just get the 'regular' points whenever we filled a script. As I said in my other post, the only bonus points on "medications" we've ever seen, has been the vitamins.

Anyway, I have been most appreciative of our local Shoppers pharms. I can't even explain how outstanding they've been. We have stayed with them because of that - and I only hope our new Shoppers is as amazing (we're moving this week). They were so amazing here, I sent in a commendation letter to corporate/head office. That's what I care about, that's why I stay - the points thing was just a byproduct that was kind of nice, and allowed us to purchase some items for our kid when she was very ill, and all our money was going to keep her healthy.

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by Minnie

Very weird - because I just called our Shoppers guy and he said there is absolutely NO bonus points events that prescription meds qualify for. We would just get the 'regular' points whenever we filled a script. As I said in my other post, the only bonus points on "medications" we've ever seen, has been the vitamins.

Anyway, I have been most appreciative of our local Shoppers pharms. I can't even explain how outstanding they've been. We have stayed with them because of that - and I only hope our new Shoppers is as amazing (we're moving this week). They were so amazing here, I sent in a commendation letter to corporate/head office. That's what I care about, that's why I stay - the points thing was just a byproduct that was kind of nice, and allowed us to purchase some items for our kid when she was very ill, and all our money was going to keep her healthy.

I said "could have", but as a Franchise, Shoppers didn't feel it was a good practice to offer bonus points on prescriptions. That was a shoppers decision. You never could offer bonus points on specific medications though, that's federal law

[kevman]

Good. It's time to get rid of all reward programs. They're not free and force you to carry a wallet full of useless cards. I'd rather just see lower prices at the checkout...

[Bill Bumface]

I know someone that was on some insane experimental arthritis drugs that cost many thousands every month.

She always went to Safeway because she basically got a free flight with every injection.