US to help reimburse states for Medicare drugs

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The federal government will help
reimburse states that have been paying for prescription drugs
after glitches with Medicare’s new benefit left many patients
stranded, U.S. health officials said on Tuesday.

States should first seek reimbursement from companies
offering the plans, but Medicare will help pay for any
difference, Mark McClellan, head of the Centers for Medicare &
Medicaid Services, said.

“The plans will reimburse … the costs that they would
have paid for the drugs under the Medicare program. If there’s
a difference, if the state reimbursement rates are higher, then
Medicare will pay that difference in cost,” McClellan told
reporters in a conference call.

McClellan called on the states “to work with us” and stop
paying for the drugs by February 15, although certain states
may be able to get an extension.

Enrollment glitches have left hundreds of thousands of
Medicare’s elderly and disabled caught without coverage for
their medicine since the benefit began January 1.

Most of those affected have been those also enrolled in
Medicaid, which covers the poor.

About half of the U.S. states have stepped in to pay for
their drugs, but many have been calling for reimbursement.

McClellan previously said Medicare could not pay the states
under law. That led some members of Congress, mostly Democrats,
to call for new legislation.