Wal-Mart Canada’s pharmacy division has launched a preferred provider program called Partners Plus which aims to control and reduce the prescription costs of company benefit plans.

Wal-Mart, which has pharmacies in 129 of its 134 stores, is the first pharmacy chain to offer such a plan in Canada.

Carole McKiee, director of Wal-Mart pharmacy division, says the company spent about a year investigating the marketplace before launching Partners Plus.

Key to the program is Wal-Mart’s low mark-up on prescriptions and dispensing fees which are competitive to each trading area. In Ontario, for example, the fee is a maximum of $6.26 per prescription.

For other pharmacies to compete, they would have to greatly reduce their present margins and dispensing fees.

Wal-Mart pharmacy is positioning itself as a company willing to charge less to fill prescriptions while still providing services similar to those offered by other pharmacy chains.

As an example, a.s.k. (Acquiring Self Knowledge) is a consumer wellness education program introduced last July which includes private counseling services, free electronic blood pressure checking, and in-pharmacy computer technology that records patient records and provides personalized information on prescriptions.

Wal-Mart says it is able to keep costs down because its advertising budget is a fraction of what its competitors spend.

It is promoting Partners Plus through a public relations campaign by National Public Relations, through sales presentations to benefits providers, and through a direct mail campaign which it is handling in-house.

With Partners Plus, Wal-Mart works with employers, benefits managers and insurance companies to design a tailored program for each employee group.

Members of the employee group get a Partners Plus card to identify them as participants.

Through a computer link-up, the individual Wal-Mart pharmacy communicates with the benefits provider and obtains information about the patient’s benefit package.

Depending on the guidelines set by employers, Wal-Mart will provide generic substitutions or call the physician if there is a less expensive alternative available to the drug prescribed.