Hello All

I live in Zurich.
One saturday night I got a very strong toothache, I went to the emergency hospital immediately then the doctor prescribed me a medicine(pain killer).
I went to buy it in the hauptbahnof pharmacy in Zurich(open 24 hours), i showed my insurance card and would receive the bill later.
I received yesterday the bill and i am very shocked about the detail:
my medicine cost 6.25 chf but in total i paid about 30 chf why?
well i paid as emergency fare as it was on evening at 23h44 17.30 chf, medicine check 3.25 chf and for a question i asked to the pharmacist (if this medicine is conflicting with the one i current use) 4.25 chf.
Have you experienced similar bill? may be it is specific to this pharmacy...over-charging...but is it fair to charge somebody in pain and is it professional also for a pharmacist to charge a client for a question or checking the medicine package? i am not sured, it is very shocking!
All feedback will be welcome as i am going for sure to complain.

Hi

You bring up two issues here:
1. The pharmacy knew they could charge your insurance, and therefore milked it for all they could. I have had a doctor charge me for the time I spent in the waiting room, and another charge my wife 450 CHF for a daily 20 minute visit over a period of 6 days while she was in hospital recovering from giving birth. All she did was hold my wife's hand and have a soothing chat!
2. HOT TIP to all newbies in Switzerland. ALWAYS, ALWAYS ask the pharmacist if they sell the same medicine / treatment / supplement under a different brand. You can guarantee that they will, and you can also guarantee that this will be 30 % cheaper than what they originally tried to flog you.

Cheers

Jim

You must watch out this space, it happens quite a lot to us foreigners to get ripped off paying outrageous amounts for something we shouldn't. It happened to me quite a lot during my first few months of stay, up until somone kindly explained to me what one should pay for and what one shouldn't pay for. I understand your irritation and I would also complain.

Can someone explain this further then? can you let us know jacek what you were told? I have had a few large pharmacy bills recently and not sure if insurance covers it all

it is really shocking how healthcare become a lucrativ business in switzerland without morality or professional manners.Thank you for your input and tips, i will be more careful indeed. Yes Jacek if you have some tips, tell us.

I always go to the company's doctor for advice and she gives me the medicines that I mustn't buy and she explains me the process how to send the bills. I learnt that asking the pharmacist questions and looking for alternative medicine which will be more cost effective always helps as vellofellow mentioned above. Never buy straight away they give you a medicine, just ask questions regarding price and effect. It always helps. For instance my gf managed to get few samples of something for free because she wasnt sure it will serve her well. Thus we initially saved CHF30.

Here are some links (but I think you know of):
Process for sending bills to insurer

Am I covered by health insurance?

Cost of Medication with and without prescription

This charging for advice business is a new gag by pharmacies. Basically if you already have a doctor's prescription (for which of course you will pay the doctor for the consultation) and then ask the pharmasist a question they will charge you an additional fee for saying 'yes' or 'no'.

The sooner this evil monopoly is broken the better...

This is spreading out of pharmacies too. I have seen sports shops have two prices on their products. One is the retail price and one is the price you buy it for. The price you buy it for is higher then the retail price. When asked about this they say it is for the advice they give you to buy a particular product or for setting up the product when you buy it etc. The thing is that they only get dealerships for these products if they provide a certain service and that service is supposed to be included in the price so it is a total scam.

Unfortunately they do not like this being pointed out to them and get rather defensive when you try to explain reason.

Hopefully the spread of this sort of behaviour (whilst undoubtedly more attractive than ever to the businesses involved) will be nipped in the bud by consumers going elsewhere and not putting up with blatant overcharging as the economic situation worsens and consumers (even in Switzerland ) become less blase about high prices.

The charges made by pharmacies are all part of an agreement with the insurers and federal authorities. In exchange for these charges the price of drugs was reduced and overall this has shown a saving for the insurers.

When you get one small item out of normal business hours then it can seem rather extreme but, as said, overall the system has reduced the cost.

The pharmacies cannot make any extra charge without the agreement of the insurers and federal authorities.

If it was out of hours and you were in a 24 hour pharmacist then you were probably charged for that.

I had a similar situation when I needed some sticking plasters at 2 in the morning. The assistant mentioned the charge before I paid - not sure whether it was a minimum charge or an additional charge, but I also ended up paying about 30 CHF.

In my case there was no ripping off insurance companies; I paid cash. I needed the plasters so had to pay.

I guess they have to finance staying open overnight with relatively few customers, so it's not unreasonable to charge for the convenience.

I had somewhat similar experience. Few months ago, I went to a Pharmacy in Basel to buy Daflgon a mild pain killer that doesn't need any prescription as per the medigate doctor (on-line service). The lady at the pharmacy refused to give me the medicine and insisted for the prescription. I called the doctor over my mobile and he again repeated the same to her. When I paid the bill, she added additional charges for the verification. I protested, but my insurance told me that a pharmacist can ask such questions by law and also charge for it!

I was upset for getting ripped legally like this ....

Ashish

Perhaps Medgate was wrong. Dafalgan 1g is not an over the counter drug. Next time ask for Dafalgan 500mg, Panadol or a generic with 500mg of Paracetamol and take two pils... This dose you can get without reciepe. Remember that the body doesn't handle more than 4g Paracetamol/24h well, this should be the absolute maximum you take.

More information about medicament categories here and here and specifically for Dafalgam here.

I ran into the counseling charge at the HB pharmacy when I renewed a prescription... although the 'counsel' given was simply the pharmacist asking if I had ever used this drug before - I didn't ask for advice, or initiate any conversation.

So the next time, I handed the pharmacist my prescription and at the same time said: "I don't need any advise regarding this medication, thank you."

No extra charges.

That s very sad to be charged for getting information at the pharmacy; it will encourage people to speak less with the pharmacist and cause a lot of incident among some patient who doesnt know how to use the medicine.That s a ashame for such a rich country! and unfair for the patient in pain.I dont really see where my tax is going to then.
Is therefore the healthsystem here just a big business for making money (profit)?then i understand why the swiss themselves are going abroad for healthcare.That s just very sad.

If you always go to the same pharmacie they would have a dossier for you and any conflict with a new drug prescription would be automatically indicated by the computer programme they all use.

In your case you had to use another pharmacie out of normal hours and you asked if the new drug was in conflict with another you were taking.They would therefore had to establish a dossier and enter the details and for this they are entitled to make a standard charge which is agreed by the insurers.

As for the health system existing to generate profits, the insurers have to operate the basic health system on a non-profit making basis. Any surplus at the end of the year goes into their reserves to be used when they make a loss. For example, Helsanna recently announced a loss of 215 million Swiss francs. See this.