How a price report becomes a verified correction

Every row of the price table has two buttons: Report a wrong price and Report out of stock. They exist because a collector that visits each provider every one to three hours still misses things, and the people most likely to spot a wrong figure are the ones about to pay it. This article follows a report from the button to the table.

Sending a report

Reporting needs an account, so each report has a member behind it. You choose the dose, and you can add a note. For a wrong price the form asks for the price you saw on the provider page, if you can give it; for stock, what the provider page said, for example an out of stock message. The most useful note gives the total including fees as the page showed it, which page it was on and whether something was added at checkout.

The report goes into the verification queue. The table does not change at this point. A member's figure is never published unverified, so the cell keeps its last confirmed price with its last checked time.

The check

The The Dose Club team works through the queue by comparing each report with the provider's page as it is now and with the collector's record, including the screenshot saved at the last change. There are three outcomes.

• Verified wrong price: the team enters a correction, a complete monthly cost with its breakdown and the page it came from. The cell updates, a row is written to the price history and the provider page's 90 day chart shows the step.
• Verified stock report: an automatic thread opens in the Prices and stock room recording that the dose is listed as out of stock, or as available again, with the time of verification.
• Rejected: the provider page agrees with the table, or the figure reported was an introductory offer, a price without a compulsory fee or a different pack. Nothing changes, and the report is closed.

The 24 hour target

The target is that every report is answered within 24 hours of being sent. The queue the team works from shows the time left on each report and marks any that have gone over, so an overdue report is visible to everyone on the team, and the proportion answered inside the target is one of the figures The Dose Club measures itself against.

Reputation

A verified report earns its reporter 25 reputation points. A rejected report earns nothing, and a report that has already been resolved cannot earn twice. Two verified reports earn the Contributor badge. Reputation appears on your community profile and exists to recognise the people who keep the table honest; it buys nothing.

The thread

When a verified change alters a price, a thread opens automatically in the Prices and stock room. Its title names the provider, the medicine, the dose and the direction and size of the move. Its body gives the time of the check, links to the provider page for the current figure and reminds readers to confirm the price on the provider's website before ordering. The same thread appears on the website and in the app, and members discuss the change there. A stock report opens a thread in the same way.

Large moves

Collector readings that move a figure by more than 20 percent in either direction are held for review before publication, and a separate article explains the hold. A correction entered after a verified report is already a human decision, so it publishes when it is entered.

What reports do not do

A report never publishes a member's figure directly, never changes a price before the team has checked it and never ranks or penalises a provider. Providers can also submit prices through the provider portal, and those are checked the same way before they appear.

Sources

• The Dose Club, How The Dose Club checks pharmacy prices, and What happens when a price moves more than 20 percent (articles on this site)
• The Dose Club community rules (page on this site)

This article is information, not medical advice. Talk to your prescriber about your treatment.