Why Don't Doctors Help Patients Shop for Drugs?

Because they don't know themselves how much drugs cost. And health plans don't pay them to know this information or do anything about it.

Although the health plans don’t pay doctors to help patients “shop for medicines,” I have learned that they will pay doctors to switch their prescriptions from branded to generic. Of course, this entire struggle between health plan and brand-name drugmaker is entirely invisible to the patient, and, therefore, likely results in perverse outcomes.

I participate in the discussion over at John Goodman's Health Policy Blog.