AMCNO monitoring impact of proposed new law for tamper-proof prescriptions

An item contained in a government spending bill included a provision which states that effective October 1, 2007, prescriptions for all Medicaid outpatient drugs will not be reimbursed unless they are written on either a tamper-resistant prescription pad or through electronic prescribing. Questions have arisen as to what constitutes a tamper-resistant pad; whether a sufficient number of pads will be available to the thousands of prescribers that write prescriptions to Medicaid beneficiaries: as well as the cost of these pads. In July, Congress introduced H.R. 3090, the "Patient and Pharmacy Protection Act of 2007," which would limit the tamper-proof prescribing pad requirement to Schedule II controlled substances instead of having it apply to all prescriptions. Schedule II drugs constitute only a small portion of Medicaid prescriptions overall.

It is important to note that passage of this legislation would not delay, the requirement. CMS has been directed to issue guidance to state Medicaid directors as to how this new law is to be implemented. The AMCNO has been in contact with key staff at the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS) and ODJFS informed the AMCNO that CMS is in fact preparing an informational item and once this information is available ODJFS will forward it to the AMCNO.