"A New Hope"

Please contact Congressman Rehberg and urge him to co-sponsor H.R. 3140.

In response to the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) final ruling on Average Manufacturer Price (AMP), REPS. BOYDA, EMERSON AND 30 HOUSE MEMBERS INTRODUCE COMMON-SENSE FIXES TO MEDICAID PHARMACY REIMBURSEMENT RULE FOR GENERIC PRESCRIPTION DRUGS. See CMS final ruling posted on GrizRPh on July 11th, 2007.

H.R. 3140 “The Saving Our Community Pharmacies Act of 2007” rectifies the current pricing discrepancies and maintains patient- pharmacist relationship by:

• Redefining the pharmacy reimbursement benchmark to accurately reflect pharmacy acquisition costs. Retail Acquisition Cost (RAC) is the median price for each drug based on a quarterly survey of actual invoices subject to audit from a 5% representative sample of pharmacies nationwide. A FUL based on RAC will allow states to pay pharmacies accurately and preserve patient access.
• Excluding all sales to mail order facilities, as well as any pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) rebates and price concessions that are not available to retail pharmacies.
• Properly defining the retail class of trade to only include retail community pharmacies.
• Including provisions to drive generic utilization which would increase taxpayer and government savings.

Read the H.R. 3140 Fact Sheet provided by NCPA.

“The situation is serious, extremely serious,” said Bruce Roberts, RPh, NCPA executive vice president and CEO. “But it is not hopeless. It is not hopeless if we all take action in a well-planned, sustained effort. We’ve got about six months before the pain begins. Let’s use every day.”

Please visit the NCPA Website for more information on H.R. 3140.

Please contact Congressman Rehberg and urge him to co-sponsor H.R. 3140 through the GrizRPh.com Representative Contacts page. If we act now we may be able to prevent the Medicaid AMP Tragedy and save jobs and independent stores nationwide. Please do your part…this may be our last chance!

Thanks to NCPA and MPA for awareness on this issue!

Eric Shields, Pharm.D.
GrizRPh.com