icollect
November 12th, 2003, 05:20 PM
The major Pharmacies waiting in the wings to take over the internet drug market are trying to play the savior of the poor uninformed consumer. They call us drug dealers. Please read closely how they responded to a proposed 10% reduction in medicaid payments and pay special attention who they punished to obtain their goals. This information needs to be fed back into the press and Search Engine management so everyone knows how evil these as*holes are.
SEATTLE, March 11 - Drugstores around the nation are threatening to stop serving Medicaid patients and close or reduce hours if states follow through on plans to cut the amounts paid to pharmacies for filling Medicaid prescriptions.
Faced with budget problems, more than a dozen states are considering reducing their reimbursement rates under Medicaid, the joint federal- state program that provides health care to 36 million poor people.
"This will send a number of pharmacies over the edge," said Ernest Boyd, executive director of the Pharmacists Association in Ohio. "We're not a religion. We're not here for charity purposes. We've got to make a profit or we can't stay open."
When pharmacists fill prescriptions for Medicaid patients, states pay them the cost of the drug plus a flat fee. But health care costs are soaring even as the recession forces states to cut their budgets. Medicaid consumes 20 percent of the average state budget.
Gov. Gary Locke of Washington has proposed the sharpest cut so far, a $71 million reduction to the $361 million budgeted for the current two- year fiscal cycle.
Other states that have made reductions or are considering them include Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Virginia.
The inspector general for the federal Health and Human Services Department nudged states toward the idea last August with a report warning that they were overestimating wholesale drug prices and overpaying pharmacists by more than $1 billion a year. The report recommended cutting pharmacy payments by about 10 percent. Pharmacy groups attacked the study as flawed.
Representatives of CVS and Walgreens, the nation's largest drugstore chains, with a combined 7,700 stores, said they might reduce hours, close stores and stop expansion in states that deeply cut Medicaid pharmacy payments. Rite Aid and Albertsons said they might drop Medicaid completely in those states.
"We're going to have to re-evaluate our participation in Medicaid," said Karen Rugen, a spokeswoman for Rite Aid, which has 3,600 stores in 29 states. "We believe everyone should have access to medical care. It's just hard to do it below your costs."
Independent drugstore owners are even more alarmed. State health administrators, including Doug Porter, the Medicaid director of Washington, say they do not believe that cuts will devastate pharmacists.
Acknowledging that the intent was to cut the druggists' margins "to the bone," Mr. Porter added: "At least in theory, we should not be putting them below cost. I would be shocked to see any serious number of pharmacies not participating."
State officials said pharmacies should instead drive harder bargains with health plans, wholesalers and manufacturers.
Pharmacists want states to find other cost-cutting options. Many states are encouraging doctors to prescribe less expensive generics. States are also trying to negotiate better deals from drug makers.
Consumers and pharmacists have beaten back some proposals to cut Medicaid pharmacy payments. In Illinois, the Rev. Jesse Jackson led a successful campaign to scale back cuts after Walgreens threatened to reduce store hours in poor Chicago neighborhoods. Proposals in New York and Oregon were also defeated. Indiana pharmacists are challenging a fee reduction in court.
SEATTLE, March 11 - Drugstores around the nation are threatening to stop serving Medicaid patients and close or reduce hours if states follow through on plans to cut the amounts paid to pharmacies for filling Medicaid prescriptions.
Faced with budget problems, more than a dozen states are considering reducing their reimbursement rates under Medicaid, the joint federal- state program that provides health care to 36 million poor people.
"This will send a number of pharmacies over the edge," said Ernest Boyd, executive director of the Pharmacists Association in Ohio. "We're not a religion. We're not here for charity purposes. We've got to make a profit or we can't stay open."
When pharmacists fill prescriptions for Medicaid patients, states pay them the cost of the drug plus a flat fee. But health care costs are soaring even as the recession forces states to cut their budgets. Medicaid consumes 20 percent of the average state budget.
Gov. Gary Locke of Washington has proposed the sharpest cut so far, a $71 million reduction to the $361 million budgeted for the current two- year fiscal cycle.
Other states that have made reductions or are considering them include Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Virginia.
The inspector general for the federal Health and Human Services Department nudged states toward the idea last August with a report warning that they were overestimating wholesale drug prices and overpaying pharmacists by more than $1 billion a year. The report recommended cutting pharmacy payments by about 10 percent. Pharmacy groups attacked the study as flawed.
Representatives of CVS and Walgreens, the nation's largest drugstore chains, with a combined 7,700 stores, said they might reduce hours, close stores and stop expansion in states that deeply cut Medicaid pharmacy payments. Rite Aid and Albertsons said they might drop Medicaid completely in those states.
"We're going to have to re-evaluate our participation in Medicaid," said Karen Rugen, a spokeswoman for Rite Aid, which has 3,600 stores in 29 states. "We believe everyone should have access to medical care. It's just hard to do it below your costs."
Independent drugstore owners are even more alarmed. State health administrators, including Doug Porter, the Medicaid director of Washington, say they do not believe that cuts will devastate pharmacists.
Acknowledging that the intent was to cut the druggists' margins "to the bone," Mr. Porter added: "At least in theory, we should not be putting them below cost. I would be shocked to see any serious number of pharmacies not participating."
State officials said pharmacies should instead drive harder bargains with health plans, wholesalers and manufacturers.
Pharmacists want states to find other cost-cutting options. Many states are encouraging doctors to prescribe less expensive generics. States are also trying to negotiate better deals from drug makers.
Consumers and pharmacists have beaten back some proposals to cut Medicaid pharmacy payments. In Illinois, the Rev. Jesse Jackson led a successful campaign to scale back cuts after Walgreens threatened to reduce store hours in poor Chicago neighborhoods. Proposals in New York and Oregon were also defeated. Indiana pharmacists are challenging a fee reduction in court.