Colorado’s poorest senior and disabled citizens would benefit if state Senate Bill 102 becomes law. The measure would allow the state to join a multistate prescription drug purchasing pool and also create a preferred drug list to lower drug costs for the more than 380,000 Coloradans who receive Medicaid.
The bill signals that the state is getting serious about looking for ways to control health costs. We urge Gov. Bill Owens to sign it into law.
The legislation started as a purchasing pool measure, then was amended in the House to add some provisions of another bill designed to create a preferred-drug list for Medicaid recipients.
While groups such as AARP supported the drug-list legislation, some mental health advocates worried that the original version of the bill might keep some patients from receiving the most appropriate medications, drugs that literally make it possible for them to function. But the combined bill exempts medications for HIV/AIDS, mental illness, cancer and cardiovascular disease from the drug-list restrictions.
Other states, such as Oregon, and federal agencies like the Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs, as well as private health-maintenance organizations, use drug lists to save money on the bulk purchase of the most commonly used medications. Colorado currently pays about $265 million a year for Medicaid prescriptions, and the new legislation is expected to save about $2 million a year by a conservative estimate.
The bill cites “ever-increasing costs of providing drugs to Medicaid recipients coupled with the state’s revenue restrictions” as an incentive for cutting costs.
The bill requires the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing to obtain federal authorization to join a multistate purchasing pool for Medicaid recipients. The state is supposed to have pooling arrangements set up by Feb. 1, 2006.
The bill also instructs the department to consider differences in drug metabolism among ethnic groups in deciding which drugs to include on the list.
The preferred drug list and discount buying are a humane and sensible approach to making sure Medicaid recipients get the medicine they need. Savings to Colorado taxpayers will be just a welcome bonus.
