Prescription Prices Without Inflation

By Kyle McCormick, PharmD, co-founder of Blueberry Pharmacy

· Updated 2025-10-01

Author credit: Ashley Quinlan (Duquesne University) and Colin Schurek (Pitt Pharmacy), PharmD Candidates 2026

The purpose of this price analysis is to compare changes in medication prices at Blueberry Pharmacy to inflation trends in other sectors such as groceries, automobiles, and healthcare services. The objective was to evaluate whether Blueberry Pharmacy’s pricing trends differed from broader inflation patterns. By drawing attention to this price discrepancy, the data would numerically illustrate to patients the difference between a traditional model of pharmacy and the cost-plus model. Affordability of medications is a growing concern for many patients as inflation levels rise and traditional model policies do not adapt to the increasing cost. This evaluation compared medications selected through convenience sampling, dispensed at Blueberry Pharmacy when the business opened in 2020, to current prices in 2025.

Patient fills of medications first dispensed between March 2020 and March 2021 were selected through convenience sampling and compared to the same prescriptions filled again in 2025. This allowed for four to five years of change to occur in drug prices for an accurate comparison over time. Other factors considered when collecting the data were membership status and quantity of the medication. Patients with membership or quantity changes were excluded to ensure observed price differences reflected only temporal changes, not differences in discounts or dosage. This ensured the data were consistent and reliable, with price change as the only variable. After 63 data points were collected, the percentage change between the two values was calculated. These values were then averaged in order to find the mean change in medication cost over time.

Across 63 medications, the average patient cost decreased from $14.57 (2020–2021) to $12.25 (2025), representing an average price reduction of 7.78%. This decrease occurred independently of membership status. During the same period, costs for groceries (eggs and milk), gasoline, and personal care services (such as haircuts) all increased.¹ As shown in Figure 1, costs of medications within the cost-plus pharmacy are the only data points that had an average decrease over time. Eggs had the highest increase at 239.25%, and this value was excluded from Figure 1 as a statistical outlier to maintain interpretability of the remaining data. Milk and gasoline increased by 25.09% and 23.73% respectively, and personal care prices increased by 27.03%. A similar trend was observed in other healthcare costs. Prices in overall medical care have risen by 11.52% over the last five years, with specific fields such as nursing homes, hospital fees, and physician services increasing by 19.11%, 17.77%, and 6.80%, respectively. Average drug costs were obtained from the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) reports (2020², 2024³). Comparing the average from 2020, $55.86, and that from 2024, $80.37, the percent change in drug cost showed an increase of 43.88%. Compared to Blueberry Pharmacy’s 7.78% price decrease, this finding highlights the affordability and commitment to low-cost drugs within the cost-plus pharmacy model.

Figure 1: Comparison of average inflation rates for each data set collected compared to deflation of the actual data collected from Blueberry Pharmacy patient costs.

In practical terms, this means patients at Blueberry Pharmacy paid, on average, less for their medications in 2025 than they did five years earlier, even as nearly every other living expense increased.

This analysis concludes that transparent pricing in cost-plus pharmacies offers patients meaningful relief from rising healthcare costs. While inflation in most other sectors is steadily increasing, the trend at this cost-plus pharmacy is moving in the other direction. This difference clearly illustrates Blueberry Pharmacy’s commitment to affordable and personalized healthcare and medication management. These trends also support the idea that free market businesses without excessive amounts of government intervention tend to have more competitive pricing and move against the trend of inflation. Other free markets show a similar pattern, including electronics (phones and televisions), cars, and computer software (see Figure 2)

Figure 2. While most essentials like healthcare and education soared far above inflation from 1998 to 2018, some markets like TVs and software moved in the opposite direction. Blueberry Pharmacy’s prices follow that same more-affordable trend.

This is most likely due to a combination of the price transparency in competitive markets, bypassing third-party payers, specifically in healthcare, and the motivation to keep prices lower in order to stay competitive with other businesses in the same industry. In cost-plus pharmacies, the price of medications does not need to reflect the presence of PBM involvement or rebates they receive from the insurance company and manufacturers. The straightforward, patient-centered approach at Blueberry Pharmacy maintains affordable prices and prioritizes patient care without being affected by the rest of the market.

Additional Info:

Figure 3. Change in medication prices at Blueberry Pharmacy from 2020 to 2025. Most medications show stable or lower costs over time.
Figure 4. Average change in medication prices at Blueberry Pharmacy from 2020–2025. Data represent 63 medications included in the analysis. Overall, the average patient cost decreased by 7.78% over the five-year period.

Footnotes:

  1. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2025, April). Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U): U.S. city average, by expenditure category [Table]. Retrieved from https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/cpi.pdf
  2. National Community Pharmacists Association. 2020 NCPA Digest. Alexandria, VA: NCPA; 2020. NCPA
  3. National Community Pharmacists Association. 2024 NCPA Digest. Alexandria, VA: NCPA; 2024. NCPA