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NACDS Supports Rep. Boyda and Rep. Emerson's Effort to Fix Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Medicaid Prescription Drug Reimbursement Rule

Posted on: Monday, 23 July 2007, 18:18 CDT

ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 23 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS) President and Chief Executive Officer Steven C. Anderson, IOM, CAE, issued the following statement today. The statement supports the introduction of legislation by Rep. Nancy Boyda (D-KS) and Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-MO) to address negative ramifications of the Deficit Reduction Act and its misapplication by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in developing a final rule regarding prescription drug reimbursement in the Medicaid program.

"The CMS rule desperately needs a fix, and a fix requires ideas and committed champions. Rep. Boyda rallied the support of House colleagues in a letter to CMS prior to its release of the final rule. She has worked diligently to craft a remedy for the Deficit Reduction Act and its misapplication by CMS.

"NACDS supports the bill introduced today by Rep. Boyda and Rep. Emerson, and thanks them sincerely for their commitment to community pharmacy and to the patients they serve as health care providers. NACDS also has supported the legislative approach of Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), Sen. Ken Salazar (D- CO) and Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS). The legislative process and the formulas for prescription drug reimbursement are similar in that they both are complex and both involve careful balance of interdependent parts. That is why NACDS will work to ensure a final legislative remedy includes individual factors that together deliver a reasonable and workable solution.

"For example, while there is more than one potential solution, the bill introduced today by Rep. Boyda and Rep. Emerson presents a workable and inseparable combination of revisions: A calculation of federal upper limits (FULs) using a pricing benchmark that more accurately reflects average retail pharmacy acquisition costs, exclusion of sales and discounts to non-community retail pharmacies such as mail order pharmacies and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) from the calculation of the pricing benchmark, and the setting of FULs only when there are three or more (rather than two or more) suppliers of the equivalent drug. The approach of Sens. Lincoln, Salazar, and Roberts, supported by NACDS, uses a different method to compute FULs but it is equally important in that it includes this combination of complimentary corrections. NACDS also has communicated that any legislative solution also needs to include an explicit definition of average manufacturer price (AMP), and NACDS appreciates that Reps. Boyda and Emerson have indicated their desire to advance this principle as the legislation moves forward.

"In the end, Congressional action is absolutely necessary to make possible the current level of vital pharmacy services available in low-income communities, including rural and inner-city areas. Public policy should not expect businesses to sell products below their cost, and should not create disincentives for solutions that reduce overall health care costs, including the dispensing of appropriate generic drugs, as well as adherence to medicinal therapy that prevents more costly physician consultations and hospital stays when medicines are not taken as directed. This sentiment is consistent with warnings by more than 250 Members of Congress in communications to CMS and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), as well as independent reports of the Government Accountability Office and the HHS Office of the Inspector General. We stand with our independent pharmacy partners in the Coalition for Community Pharmacy Action in applauding Reps. Boyda and Emerson for their action today and for their ongoing commitment to this cause."

The National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS) represents the nation's leading retail chain pharmacies and suppliers, helping them better meet the changing needs of their patients and customers. Chain pharmacies operate more than 38,000 pharmacies, employ 114,000 pharmacists, fill more than 2.3 billion prescriptions yearly, and have annual sales of nearly $700 billion. Other members include almost 1,000 suppliers of products and services to the chain drug industry. NACDS international membership has grown to include 104 members from 29 countries. For more information about NACDS, visit http://www.nacds.org/.

National Association of Chain Drug Stores

CONTACT: Chrissy Shott of the National Association of Chain Drug Stores,+1-703-837-4266

Web site: http://www.nacds.org/

Source: PRNewswire-USNewswire

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