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Bush Administration Plays Scrooge to Medicaid Patients
Drastic Cuts in Pharmacy Will Reduce Access for the Poor
Alexandria, Va. - December 18, 2006 A new proposal from the Bush administration, that slashes billions of dollars from the Medicaid program, will threaten access to life-saving medications for millions of the most vulnerable Americans and cost the government more in the long run, according to the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA). The federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has proposed cutting the Medicaid program by $8.4 billion over the next five years, with more than 90 percent of the cuts reportedly coming from reimbursement to pharmacies. Medicaid is the joint federal-state program that provides health care to more than 50 million poor and disabled persons, more than 50 percent of whom are children.
“To announce a Scrooge-like proposal such as this in the midst of the holiday season is worse than poor timing,” said Bruce Roberts, RPh, NCPA’s executive vice president and CEO. “This is the unwanted gift that will keep on giving all the way to the emergency room for the country’s most vulnerable population. Millions of other patients also may be stranded without access to their pharmacy.”
The proposal limits payments to state Medicaid agencies for generic prescription drugs, attempting to implement provisions of the Deficit Reduction Act signed into law by President Bush in February. Reimbursement for higher cost brand-name drugs is unaffected under the proposal, thereby eliminating any incentive to encourage lower-cost generics, Roberts said. The announcement temporarily postpones changes that were to go into effect next month. The public has 60 days to comment on the proposal.
“Under this plan, pharmacists would be losing an average of $3 to $4 for every generic prescription dispensed,” Roberts said. “We are very disappointed that the President would force such an anti-small business measure on pharmacists. More than half of all prescriptions dispensed by retail pharmacies are for generic medications, so losing money on every one dispensed to a Medicaid patient is a recipe for economic disaster.” More than 25 percent of all prescriptions dispensed by independent pharmacists are to Medicaid patients.
Roberts warned that many community pharmacists would be forced out of the Medicaid program, resulting in reduced access to life-saving medications for Medicaid patients. If pharmacies are forced to close as a result of these drastic cuts, millions of additional patients also will lose access to their pharmacy. Approximately half of all independent pharmacists are in communities with populations under 20,000.
“There are fewer providers in these small towns and in underserved areas where community pharmacies often are located,” Roberts said. “If patients don’t have access to the medicines that control their diseases, you will see higher overall costs from increased doctors’ visits and hospitalizations. This move is shortsighted and dangerous.”
The National Community Pharmacists Association, founded in 1898, represents the nation’s community pharmacists, including the owners of more than 24,000 pharmacies. The nation’s independent pharmacies, independent pharmacy franchises, and independent chains dispense nearly half of the nation's retail prescription medicines.
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