DESCRIPTION OF DRUG PRICE FILES AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOADING


    There are 8 primary price files available for downloading:

 1) FSS.EXE - Federal Supply Schedule (FSS), generally available to
    all Federal Govt agencies
 2) FSSR.EXE - Restricted Federal Supply Schedule (FSSR), restricted
    to specific Federal Govt agencies
 3) BIG4.EXE - "BIG4" prices, (available to VA, DoD, Public Health &
    Coast Guard only)
 4) BPA.DBF - BPA (Blanket Purchase Agreements), available to VA only
 5) NC.DBF - National Contracts (Mandatory source, available to
    specific agencies depending on product)
 6) FSSTIER.DBF - FSS Tier Prices (FSS prices subject to minimum
    quantity purchase)
 7) BIG4TIER.DBF - BIG4 Tier Prices (BIG4 prices subject to minimum
    quantity purchase)
 8) PRICES.EXE - All prices (FSS, BIG4, BPAs, National Contracts and
    Tier Prices) in one file.

About DBF files:
  .DBF files are dBase compatible database files which can be used
  in various database programs such as dBase, Access, Foxpro, and
  Paradox. These files can also be imported into most spreadsheet
  programs such as Microsoft Excel.

Using DBF files with spreadsheet programs:
  Most spreadsheet programs can import .DBF files.  Microsoft Excel 97
  and Excel 2000 can handle over 65000 lines, which is more than
  adequate for the largest price file.  But some older spreadsheet
  programs are limited to 8192 or 16384 lines.  For anyone still using
  older programs we also provide database files that are split into
  roughly 8000 or 16000 lines per segment.  These files are:

  1) PRICESA.EXE - Same as PRICES.EXE, except split into multiple .DBF
     tables with no more that 8192 lines per table.
  2) PRICESB.EXE - Same as PRICES.EXE, except split into multiple .DBF
     tables with no more that 16384 lines per table.
  3) FSSA.EXE - Same as FSS.EXE, except split into multiple .DBF tables
     with no more that 8192 lines per table.
  4) FSSB.EXE - Same as FSS.EXE, except split into multiple .DBF tables
     with no more that 16384 lines per table.


Note: Files that end with .EXE are self-expanding compressed files.
After downloading you must decompress them by "executing" them.
This can be done by double-clicking on their name in the Windows
explorer.  The uncompressed file will generally be the same name
except with a .DBF extension.


State Veterans Homes
  State Veterans Homes (SVH) are classified into one of two groups (option 1
  or option 2).  Option 2 orders are actually placed by the VA, so they
  receive VA pricing (including BIG4 prices).  Option 1 orders would generally
  receive FSS pricing, the same as other non-BIG4 agencies.  Some Option 1 SVHs
  are also eligible for National Contract pricing.  Eligibility is shown with
  a T (true) or F (false) value in the SVH1 or SVH2 fields of the national contract price
  file.  A list of SVHs showing which option they use is avalable as file
  SVH.DBF.