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Haverhill Mayor Announces Canadian Prescription Drug
Mail Order Program for Retired City Employees

 Mayor James J. Fiorentini announced that the City of Haverhill will be offering city of Haverhill retirees a Canadian mail order program for brand name prescription medications.  The program will initially be available to all retired Haverhill employees and their family members.  The mail order program will be known as HaverhillMeds and will begin on June 1, 2006.

 The City of Haverhill becomes only the fourth or fifth Massachusetts community to offer a Canadian Prescription Drug importation program. 

 In hailing the program, Mayor Fiorentini said that the Canadian Prescription Drug importation program has the potential to save up to $200,000 for taxpayers of the City of Haverhill and will save money for the retirees.  Fiorentini said that his intention is to start this program as a voluntary program for retirees only and then to expand it to current city employees.

 The HaverhillMeds program will allow retired city employees to purchase their prescription medications by mail order through Canada.  Canadian prescription medications are, on average, about 40% cheaper than medications purchased in the United States.  To persuade retirees to enter the HaverhillMeds program, the city will waive co-pays and offer a $25 incentive.  The city pays for most of the prescription medication, so the city saves when the cost of the medication is lowered. 

 Fiorentini said that cities such as Springfield, Massachusetts that had tried the Canadian drug import program had saved a substantial amount of money. 

 After reviewing a number of companies, the City has selected CanaRx Services Inc. to provide an optional voluntary international prescription drug program for all Retirees.  The savings are to be shared by eliminating retiree co-payments and further financial incentives.  CanaRx currently provides the prescription drug importation program to the City of Springfield, Massachusetts, Schenectady, NY and a number of other communities.

 In making the announcement Mayor Fiorentini called it a step forward to reducing the crippling burden of healthcare costs:

 “Our healthcare costs for our Employees and Retirees are close to twenty million dollars per year.  Our healthcare costs are rising this year at 9%.  Cities and towns have to take innovative action to lower their healthcare costs or they will be forced to layoff Employees, close schools and eliminate programs such as music and art in order to pay for healthcare.

 The initialization of the CanaRx Prescription Drug Importation Program that we are announcing today is the first in a series of measures designed to bring healthcare costs under control.”
 

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The June, 2006 Edition of the Valley Patriot
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