By CATHLEEN F. CROWLEY, Staff writer Tuesday, June 10, 2008
ALBANY -- New York pharmacists say the state's latest cut to their reimbursement may cause closures or force pharmacies to reject Medicaid and EPIC patients.
Pharmacists will gather in Albany on Wednesday to protest the cut, which will take effect on July 1. ``This could be one of the final nails in our coffin,'' said Jim Bowen, president of Adirondack Apothecary, which has three pharmacies on the eastern edge of Adirondack Park. The state's budget problems led to a last-minute reduction to pharmacists who fill drugs for the state's Medicaid and EPIC patients. Medicaid is a public health insurance program for the poor and disabled. EPIC is a taxpayer-funded prescription drug program for the elderly. The 2.25 percent cut means an estimated $50 million loss to the state's pharmacies. A pharmacist filling a prescription for a $100 drug will make only a 75-cent profit on each script, said Craig Burridge, executive director of the Pharmacists Society of the State of New York. Patients are supposed to pay an additional dispensing fee of $3.50 to the pharmacist for each prescription, but Medicaid recipients do not have to pay if they can't afford it. In New York, pharmacists collect the fee about 20 percent of the time, Burridge said. ``It doesn't cover your overhead,'' Burridge said. Michael Maggy, owner of Maggy Pharmacy in Dannemora, about 15 miles west of Plattsburgh, said the cut will crush rural pharmacies like his. About 15 to 30 percent of his clients are on Medicaid and EPIC. If the state's reimbursement doesn't not cover the cost of doing business, Maggy said it might come to refusing Medicaid and EPIC patients. In 2007, 47 New York pharmacies withdrew from the Medicaid program. Also last year, upstate New York had a net loss of 37 pharmacies because of closures and mergers, Burridge said. Maggy's Pharmacy serves 11 small towns and hamlets. Its delivery car travels about 150 miles a night to distribute prescriptions to clients. If the pharmacy closes or stops accepting Medicaid and EPIC patients, clients will have no where to go, Maggy said. ``If this trend continues for much longer, we are going to have trouble surviving in these rural markets,'' said Bowen California pharmacists, who have the same reimbursement rate as New York, are allowed to charge a $7.50 dispensing fee. New York pharmacists are lobbying to repeal the cut to the reimbursement rate or increase the dispensing fee. The pharmacists will meet at 11 a.m. Wednesday at the Best Western Sovereign Hotel, 1228 Western Ave., Albany, along with the New York StateWide Senior Action Council Senior Statewide Action Coalition. Cathleen F. Crowley can be reached at 454-5348, or by e-mail at ccrowley@timesunion.com.
THIS IS WHY CVS, ECKERD, RITE AID, WALGREENS AND THE REST OF THE BEHEAMOTHS RULE......THEY ARE THE GIANT DINOSAURS OF THE DRUG INDUSTRY----they can 'hide' alot in their wake.........
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
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