Texas pharmacists fear Medicaid reimbursement cuts will devastate livelihoods
Health and Human Services Executive Commissioner Tom Suehs faced a tough crowd Saturday: a room full of Texas pharmacists fearful that recent changes to how the state reimburses them for filling Medicaid prescriptions will endanger their jobs.
Under the new policy, the state no longer provides Medicaid funding directly to pharmacies, instead first giving that money to managed care service providers such as HMOs. Those providers must then work through a third party, so-called pharmacy benefit managers, to distribute Medicaid funds to pharmacies.
The new reimbursement rules have been in effect for less than a month, but some are already concerned that pharmacies will close down in low-income communities that rely on the federal insurance for health care as benefit managers slash what pharmacies are paid for filling Medicaid prescriptions.
In February, a Corpus Christi-based pharmaceutical company went so far as to sue Suehs to try to stop new Medicaid reimbursement rules from taking effect next month.
More at http://www.statesman.com/news/texas-politics/texas-pharmacists-fear-medicaid-reimbursement-cuts-will-devastate-2259772.html
[font color=green]Just what the Medicaid system needs--more useless administrative personnel. Does anyone realistically expect for costs to drop when two new layers of middlemen (the health care provider and pharmacy benefit managers) are going to take their cut from the Medicaid trough?
The losers are the small pharmacies and the patients who may have to move their business elsewhere if their local pharmacies close. Three dunces to the governor and our glorious Repugnant legislators for exercising their political calculus to minimize what the state will spend on those who need the help the most.[/font]
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