New Mexicans can now use a public portal to compare the costs of prescriptions across the state. The tool was added to a database by the New Mexico Department of Health that allows residents to compare prices for different services and get data on the quality of those services.
The new prescription database calculates the average cost of prescriptions, allowing residents to ensure they aren’t paying more than they should at their local pharmacy.
NMDOH’s Health Systems Epidemiology Program Manager Ervin Garcia said when looking up a particular prescription, the database will also link to available substitutes, allowing users to see how much they could save with a generic drug over a name brand, for example.
Along with the new prescription update, Garcia said the full database is now available in Spanish, increasing access to some of the state’s most vulnerable populations.
“Myself being a native Spanish speaker, I took the initiative to go ahead and have everything translated into Spanish so they would be available to everybody,” he said.
It’s all part of the All Payer Claims Database launched in August of 2024 as a way to improve transparency in health care pricing, and help inform policy decisions with data for a variety of medical services pulled from private insurance, Medicaid and Medicare.
“It all started with a vision before the COVID epidemic happened,” he said. “So it's been an idea since then.”
Garcia says about 900 people have used the service in the last three months, but that the DOH would like to see more people logging in to help them find the best deal they can when getting the medical treatments they need.
“I really hope that a lot more people utilize this service,” he said, “because it's something that's not offered in every state and New Mexico has taken the initiative to make this available.”
In addition to the pricing information, the database also uses the ranking systems from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to provide users with information on the quality of service they can expect.
Support for this coverage comes from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
