USA Today: (New) Medicaid drug rule may hurt recipients

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-09-16-drugs_N.htm?csp=N003

By Richard Wolf, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — An obscure provision slipped into a $120 billion Iraq spending bill in May threatens to leave some poor and disabled Medicaid recipients without prescription drugs in October.

In a case of unintended consequences, Congress inserted a rule cracking down on Medicaid fraud that requires that all non-electronic prescriptions for Medicaid patients be written on tamper-resistant paper.

The rule was devised as a way to raise nearly $150 million over five years for public hospitals, the amount that Medicaid fraud costs the federal government.

It has been criticized as too much, too soon by pharmacists, doctors, patient advocacy groups and state Medicaid officials. They say doctors could leave Medicaid, pharmacists could lose money and patients could be denied drugs.

"Nobody really knew where this came from," says Jamila Edwards of the California Primary Care Association. "The patient's going to be in the middle thinking, 'How come I didn't get my medication?' "

Today, the state Medicaid directors and more than 100 organizations will send a letter to congressional leaders asking for a one-year delay to the rule, according to Martha Roherty, director of the National Association of State Medicaid Directors.

FULL story at link.

[kurth]

1. $1 TRILLION for Iraq while our weakest citizens go without medicines

[phillysuse]

2. And remember someone has to pay for the

new prescription pads used by every physician.

And these cost more than the previously prescription pads we had.