Suffolk School Employees Health Plan
SSEHPMeds
From: Marv Loewen
RE: SSEHP / SSEHPMeds / Cana RX
A new optional Pharmacy Benefit named Cana RX was added to your SSEHP benefit
effective September 1st. Catamaran will continue to be our pharmacy administrator and
Cana RX will be a supplemental provider for those who wish to participate.
Through Cana RX you can now get 90 day prescriptions filled for brand name drugs
(Tiers 2, 3 & 4) with NO COPAY.
In most developed countries of the world,
wholesale costs for medications are set by the
government. In the US the pharmacy lobbyists have convinced our congressional
representatives that this is un-American. As a result wholesale costs in the US
are often
40% more per pill.
Cana RX is located in Windsor, Ontario, about a mile south of Detroit. If you order
through them your meds will arrive in containers sealed by the same pharmaceutical
company that provides the med in the US. The meds will be shipped in 90 day allotments
from Canada, New Zealand, Australia, or Great Britain, depending upon which country’s
company provides the least expensive medication. These countries are selected for the
following reasons:
they are all English speaking countries
which reduces the possibility of
communication issues.
the regulations regarding medications and
their distribution are either equal to or
more stringent than those of the FDA in the USA.
Excluded from the covered meds are the following:
You must have a history of using a medication for it to be filled by Cana RX. After the
initial fill and the expected positive therapeutic effects have been confirmed with no negative
side effects, subsequent prescriptions can be submitted to Cana RX. Prescriptions for
90 days with 3 refills are encouraged for many maintenance meds we consume.
In SSEHP about 75 percent of our prescriptions are generic and account for 25
percent of our pharmacy costs. In contrast, 25 percent of our meds are brand name drugs
(Tiers 2, 3 & 4) and account for 75% of our pharmacy expenditures. If you use brand name
drugs, your participation in Cana RX can help to control pharmacy costs and with the
incentive of no copay, your costs will be reduced as well.
If you wish additional information you can use any of the following Cana RX contacts:
SSEHP Meds
P.O. Box 44650
Detroit, Michigan 48224-40650