Medicare won't reimburse states for emergency drug costs (K-R)

[Up2Late]

(Is "Medicare administrator Mark McClellan..." Scott's brother?)

Posted on Tue, Jan. 17, 2006

Medicare won't reimburse states for emergency drug costs

By Tony Pugh
Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - The federal government won't repay states that are making emergency purchases for hundreds of thousands of poor, sick people whose new Medicare drug coverage isn't yet working, Medicare officials say. Instead, those states must recoup the money from the private plans that began providing drug coverage Jan. 1 on behalf of Medicare.

Medicare administrator Mark McClellan said the new Medicare legislation was clear: "Under this program, we don't have the authority to pay states directly. People are in Medicare drug plans and it's the Medicare plans that are supposed to pay for the medications."

That could create an administrative nightmare for the states that stepped up to safeguard the health of low-income elderly and disabled people whose Medicare coverage hasn't materialized because of administrative problems and poor planning by Medicare officials. Now, those states will bear the cost of filing hundreds of thousands of claims with the dozens of private drug plans that provide Medicare coverage within their borders.

"That's going to be very complicated," said Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, the chairman of the National Governors Association, who was frustrated and disappointed by the news. "We're doing the federal government a favor. We're in essence loaning them money while they get their problems worked out. ... Now we're going to not only become the bank, but the collection agency? Next, we'll be manufacturing the drugs and selling them," he said Tuesday.

(more at link below)

<http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/nation/13647748.htm?source=rss&channel=krwashington_nation>