Statement By Craig Fuller, President and CEO, National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS) on Medicaid Reform
Posted on: Friday, 21 October 2005, 15:01 CDT
ALEXANDRIA, Va., Oct. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- The following is a statement by Craig Fuller, President and CEO of the National Association of Chain Drug Stores:
Yesterday, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (R-IA) released the Committee's mark that included provisions to reform Medicaid. The National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS) is opposed to provisions in the mark related to a restructuring of the prescription drug benefit under Medicaid -- believing those proposals would, if enacted, seriously jeopardize the Medicaid program serving over 40 million Americans.
The proposals offered for next week's review by the full Senate Finance Committee fail at every level to either reform the Medicaid drug benefit or control costs.
It is bad enough that the proposals seek to take a disproportionate savings from community pharmacy that represents the smallest cost factor associated with the drug benefit. But, what is worse is that the proposals would remove existing incentives for generic drug utilization and drive patients to more expensive medications.
The proposals leave more questions for community pharmacy and the nation's governors than they answer. The Senate proposal conveniently allows them to capture paper savings to meet their targets by lowering what Medicaid would pay community pharmacies to purchase the drugs they dispense. However, they leave it to the states to figure out what a fair professional fee would be to allow community pharmacies to participate in individual state Medicaid programs.
Shifting the burden to the state government and to community pharmacy in the name of Medicaid reform only insures that the 40 million Medicaid beneficiaries are going to be left behind.
We can and must do better at reforming Medicaid. NACDS and our member companies urge the Senate to take the time to develop a meaningful Medicaid Reform solution for 2007 -- the year they have determined their proposals would take effect.
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 pharmacy operates more than 35,000 pharmacies, employs 120,000 pharmacists, fills more than 2.1 billion prescriptions yearly, and has annual sales of over $500 billion. Other members include more than 1000 suppliers of products and services to the chain drug industry. For more information about NACDS, visit http://www.nacds.org/.
National Association of Chain Drug Stores
CONTACT: Meredith Hite of the National Association of Chain Drug Stores,+1-703-837-4207
Web site: http://www.nacds.org/
Source: PRNewswire
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