Broad Pharmacy Coalition Urges Congress to Block Severe Medicaid Cuts to Help Preserve Patient Access

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (September 21, 2009) — A diverse coalition of health care industry groups has sent an urgent letter to the bipartisan leadership in Congress seeking to delay pending Medicaid cuts and to enact a more equitable formula to reimburse pharmacies for dispensing generic drugs to Medicaid beneficiaries. The letter was signed by the American Pharmacists Association (APhA), Food Marketing Institute (FMI), Healthcare Distribution Management Association (HDMA), National Alliance of State Pharmacy Associations (NASPA), National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS), National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA), and the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA).

The letter seeks Congressional help to ensure the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) does not implement the cuts when a September 30 moratorium is lifted and addresses the underlying inadequacies of those reimbursement levels, which are well below the acquisition costs for these prescription drugs. Congress previously recognized the problems regarding the implementation of a reimbursement formula based on Average Manufacturer Price (AMP), especially for patients.

Recognizing the tight timeframe for action and the current efforts to pass health care reform legislation that include provisions that begin to address this issue, the coalition offers suggestions for how to create an end result that every everyone should want?the uninterrupted access of generic prescription drugs for Medicaid patients. A copy of the letter is available at:

http://www.ncpanet.org/pdf/leg/ampcoalitionlettertocongress.pdf.