The National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) expressed disappointment with the recent vote by the U.S. House of Representatives to approve massive cuts in the Medicaid program that could force up to 10,000 community pharmacies out of the program. By a two-vote margin, the House passed a budget bill that will result in community pharmacists losing money on every Medicaid prescription they dispense, forcing many out of the Medicaid program and potentially out of business.
“This is a tremendously short-sighted approach to containing health care costs,” said NCPA Executive Vice President and CEO Bruce Roberts, R.Ph. “If Medicaid patients lose access to their prescription medications — which some will, under this plan — more people will end up in emergency rooms and in hospitals, and that will be far more expensive in the long run.”
NCPA has offered to work with Congress to achieve even more savings than in the current bill by increasing the percentage of Medicaid patients who fill their prescriptions using lower-cost generic drugs. NCPA claims that a modest 8 percent increase in the use of generic drugs would save about $19 billion over five years, much more than is achieved through the cuts in pharmacy.
“I think there has been recent acknowledgment by the Republican leadership on Capitol Hill that their bill will have a disastrous impact on community pharmacy,” Roberts said. “What we can’t understand is why they would make this frontal assault on small and often rural businesses all across America.”
Medicaid patients comprise approximately 25 percent of the average community pharmacy’s prescription drug sales. According to NCPA, an estimated 125,000 pharmacy jobs could be lost if 10,000 pharmacies are forced to end their participation in the Medicaid program.