States and Medicaid Cuts

Posted on July 25, 2012 by townsend

• Medicaid drug restrictions thus far seen as bitter pill for patients, providers, By Monique Garcia and Bonnie Miller, July 25, 2012, Chicago Tribune: “To illustrate the early problems the state is having as it makes large-scale cuts to its Medicaid program, consider the new limit on prescription drugs. For the most part, low-income people used to be able to get an unlimited number of prescriptions filled. Now there’s a maximum of four a month. That’s a problem for mental health patients who may take a cocktail of six or seven drugs a day, from psychotropic medicines to control mood and behavior to prescriptions to suppress unwanted side effects. While the new law allows for doctors to write more than four prescriptions a month for those who need it, they must get prior approval – a process health care professionals say the state has yet to detail and is ill-equipped to handle…”
• 13 states aim to limit Medicaid, By Phil Galewitz and Matthew Fleming, July 22, 2012, USA Today: “Thirteen states are moving to cut Medicaid by reducing benefits, paying health providers less or tightening eligibility, even as the federal government prepares to expand the insurance program for the poor to to as many as 17 million more people. States routinely trim the program as tough times drive up enrollment and costs. But the latest reductions – which follow more extensive cuts last year – threaten to limit access to care for some of its 60 million recipients…”
• Doctors: Limiting Medicaid prescriptions adds risk, By Phil Galewitz, July 22, 2012, USA Today: “Illinois Medicaid recipients have been limited to four prescription drugs as the state becomes the latest to cap how many medicines it will cover in the state-federal health insurance program for the poor. Doctors fear the state’s cost-cutting move could harm patients, who have to get state permission to go beyond the limit…”