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medpundit |
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Tuesday, May 20, 2003Under the Maine plan, drug makers would be asked to extend to other state residents the discounts they are required to give to Medicaid. If they refuse, the state would require doctors to get a prior authorization before prescribing their drugs for Medicaid recipients. Twenty other states are considering similar plans. It sounds like a good program, until you consider how low Medicaid discounts are. If the rate of reimbursement for drugs is anything like what it is for vaccines, then the drug companies are right to be alarmed. Last year, our practice gave $576 worth of the vaccine Prevnar to our Medicaid population. Our reimbursement was $26. We gave $300 worth of Comvax, a combination vaccine for Hib and Hepatits B. We were reimbursed $15.75. We gave $150 worth of DTaP. We were reimbursed $20.75. (Medicaid makes up only a small proportion of our practice. Our losses would have been a lot worse if we practiced in a more impoverished area.) Makes you feel sorry for the drug companies, doesn't it? posted by Sydney on 5/20/2003 07:42:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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