IMPORTANT NOTICE: Medicaid Reimbursement!!!

Representative Pallone has introduced a very important piece of legislation into the House of Representatives…H.R.3700.

H.R.3700, the `Fair Medicaid Drug Payment Act of 2007', is the bill we NEED to SAVE OUR HIDES before the implementation of the new AMP. H.R.3700 can be meshed easily with Baucus’s S.1951, also known as the `Fair Medicaid Drug Payment Act of 2007' in the Senate, and will keep our heads above water until we can tweak it later, and maybe implement some of H.R.3140 into it when time permits. Both S.1951 and H.R.3700 are easily implemented into Congress since they both deal with a 300 percent of the weighted average of the most recent average manufacturer prices for purchase by retail community pharmacies and we don’t need to bring out the calculator again and spend a bunch of time on calculations as we would with H.R.3140’s Retail Acquisition Costs.

So please…at this point in time support H.R.3700 and S.1951, the `Fair Medicaid Drug Payment Act of 2007' and please write to Congressman Rehberg thanking him for his previous support of pharmacy Medicare legislation H.R.971 and H.R.1474 and to PLEASE CO-SPONSOR H.R.3700.

S.1951 and H.R.3700 are our only hope at this point in time before Congress packs up and goes home to Save our Community Pharmacy Hides before the implementation of the devastating CMS proposed AMP, which is 36% below our acquisition cost according to the GAO studies. With this in mind, please don’t delay, call Congressman Rehberg at (406) 256-1019 or email him at http://www.house.gov/writerep/ or go to www.grizrph.com and click on REPRESENTATIVE CONTACTS for other numbers/ fax numbers/ emails, etc. Time is of the essence. For more information on this bill, CMS, AMP, GAO and other Medicaid/ Medicare bills, please visit Grizrph.com…In the Spotlight!

"Representative Pallone and Senator Baucus are in strong positions to move their respective legislation, get into a conference, and send a single bill to the President before they adjourn" states Executive Director of MPA Jim Smith.

In addition H.R.1474 (Medicare Prompt Payment Legislation) has House Majority of 223 of 435 members signed on as co-sponsors.

And please visit GrizRph.com, In the Spotlight, for the low-down on H.R.971 (Medicare Pharmacy Negotiation Bill)…it has gone to hearing and independent pharmacies got maximum results.

Please visit the Montana Pharmacy Association (MPA) website (www.rxmt.org) for important updates including letters to our Representative and Senators by MPA President Jim Seifert, a great article by Carla Cobb entitled “Pharmacists Aren’t Just Bottle Fillers”, Dean Forbes Newsletter, Update on Rosiglitazone concerns by Sherill Brown, and much more.

Thank you,

Eric Shields, Pharm.D.