The summer of 2011 is shaping up to be the season for tough budget cuts, both in the nation’s capital and our own state capital in Springfield.
On July 15, the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services proposed further cuts in reimbursements to community-based pharmacies for medications they provide to Illinois Medicaid patients. This is a very negative development because it adds to similar cuts already made in the state budget and will compound the harm to both pharmacies and patients.
Already, cuts in the state budget will result in more than 40,000 Medicaid patients (mostly people with disabilities and seniors) losing prescription coverage in September through Illinois Cares Rx. So many community-based pharmacies are struggling to serve Medicaid patients because of already low reimbursement rates. They may have no alternative under the additional proposed cuts but to lay off workers, stop serving Medicaid patients or close altogether.
They are a business like any other and must receive adequate support to maintain operations. There is a real risk that some pharmacies would be unable to remain open and, of course, would be terrible for patients who rely on access to them for prescriptions and advice from trusted experts. The reality is, pharmacists may be the only real and consistent access to health care for a certain number of Illinois citizens.
Don’t get me wrong — I know we need to get government budgets under control, and that everyone needs to do his or her part. But there comes a time when budget-cutters need to search for less damaging reductions and spread the pain in a smarter way.
Think about it: When you target some of the states’ most vulnerable people not once, but twice, you are creating a sort of “double jeopardy” policy-makers may regret.
It is easy to argue that this will not save money, but instead result in an explosion in costs as the social safety net that is already stretched thin will receive a huge influx in traffic as people visit hospitals and clinics with aggravated symptoms that would have been easy enough to address earlier in the process at the local pharmacy.
Surely, health-care reforms and budget control can be achieved in a way that doesn’t drive valued providers over the financial brink and eliminate access to pharmacy services for Medicaid patients in some areas.
In reviewing its proposal, let’s hope the Department of Healthcare and Family Services finds that there is a better way of helping to control costs than putting our Medicaid system and patients behind the eight ball.
* J. Michael Patton is executive director of the Illinois Pharmacists Association.
# As posted by The State Journal-Register | Springfield, IL : Aug 08, 2011
No comments:
Post a Comment