Discount plan set for uninsured

TRENTON - Uninsured patients in New Jersey will soon see some deep discounts on prescriptions with a new discount drug card being offered by doctors and one of the state's largest HMO plans.

Under a partnership announced yesterday, doctors in the state will be able to hand uninsured patients a discount drug card offering savings of up to 50 percent - more on some generic drugs - at about 50,000 U.S. pharmacies.

The cards are being distributed to physicians who are members of the Medical Society of New Jersey or part of the network of QualCare Inc., a Piscataway-based managed-care insurer owned by 14 hospital systems and nearly 4,000 doctors in New Jersey.

"We're getting distribution to about 80 percent of the physicians practicing in New Jersey," Annette Catino, QualCare's chief executive officer, said yesterday.

QualCare also will distribute cards through hospital clinics and to any other doctors requesting them. The cards initially are being offered to doctors in family practice, internal medicine, obstetrics/gynecology, cardiology, pulmonology and gastroenterology.

"Some of the discount is coming from rebates from the drug makers," Catino said, and some comes from pharmacies, "who see this as a marketing tool to get foot traffic through the door."

The cards will be accepted at most major drugstore retail chains, supermarket pharmacies and discount stores, and some independent pharmacies.

About 1.4 million New Jersey residents - 275,000 of them children - do not have health insurance, according to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.