WASHINGTON, June 15, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — A new ad
campaign launched today highlights the clear choice policymakers in
states across the country have in finding savings for their state’s
Medicaid program: cut benefits for patients or billions in
overpayments to independent drugstores. States and the federal
government could save $33 billion over the next decade by
cutting independent drugstore overpayments and modernizing pharmacy
benefits to be more like those in Medicare and commercial
plans.
Click here to view ad
“Taxpayers shouldn’t pay more for Medicaid drug benefits than
Fortune 500 companies and Medicare,” said Pharmaceutical Care
Management Association (PCMA) President and CEO Mark Merritt.
“Currently, the program uses fewer generic drugs and pays
drugstores more than double the fees that Medicare or private
insurers pay. Over the next decade, states and the federal
government could save $33 billion – without cutting benefits
or payments to doctors and hospitals – by modernizing
Medicaid pharmacy benefits.”
Transitioning to a more efficient and affordable pharmacy
benefit model would save states across the country billions without
limiting access the National Center for Policy Analysis
(NCPA) announced in a new white paper, “Increasing the
Cost-Effectiveness of Medicaid Drug Programs.”
Most state Medicaid programs pay too much for prescription drugs
because they use an archaic, fee-for-service approach in which
state officials set payment rates and are therefore constantly
lobbied to inflate them by special interests like pharmacists. To
avoid this trap, most non-Medicaid drug benefits programs — like
those offered by Medicare, employers and unions — rely upon
independent, third party pharmacy benefit experts to negotiate
competitive rates with pharmacies. These programs also reduce costs
by
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