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Friday, January 16, 2004
Callers flooding Rx Plus help line
Copyright © 2004 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc. | ||||||
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Also on this page: Participating Pharmacies | |||||
Since the state announced its new prescription-assistance program on Tuesday, nearly 2,000 callers have swamped a state help line asking how to join Maine Rx Plus. State officials say the high volume of calls speaks to a need among Mainers who can't afford drug coverage but earn too much to enroll in the state's Medicaid program, MaineCare. Gerrie Pallang, a 61-year-old bookkeeper from Westbrook, said she is relieved the program is starting Saturday. "Even if we get just 25 percent off, that's huge savings," said Pallang, who sets aside about $300 each month for her hormone treatment and her husband's asthma drugs. Discounts of 10 to 60 percent will apply to hundreds of drugs on the state's "preferred drug list" - the same drugs made available to 210,000 MaineCare enrollees. Using the same list of drugs for Maine Rx Plus was no coincidence. State officials say the drugs on the list are all reasonably priced, clinically appropriate and high quality. Secondly, they want to show pharmaceutical companies why it's a good idea to enter into discount agreements with Maine to get their products labeled as preferred drugs. With the introduction of Maine Rx Plus, a spot on that list could more than double a product's potential market. An estimated 275,000 people are eligible for Maine Rx Plus because they have no drug coverage and make less than 350 percent of the federal poverty level. "We believe that, down the road, that improves the state's buying power," said Newell Augur, spokesman for the Department of Human Services. About 110 pharmacies have signed on. But the remaining two-thirds of Maine's 300 pharmacies say they can't afford to give Medicaid-like discounts to more people due to a looming Medicaid reimbursement cut and already-slim profit margins. The feeling among many pharmacists is that Maine Rx Plus punishes them for the spiraling cost of drugs when drug makers set the prices, said House Minority Leader Joe Bruno, R-Raymond, who is a pharmacist and president of Community Pharmacies, a local chain of 15 stores. Bruno said the original version of Maine Rx Plus that he helped author in 2000, called Maine Rx, treated pharmacists more fairly. Pharmacists made $3 per prescription on top of a Medicaid reimbursement rate for drugs that was higher that year. "We'd love to be able to give these people low-cost prescription drugs," Bruno said. "But under Maine Rx Plus, the pharmacist just sacrifices revenue out of his business to get nothing in return other than being like Robin Hood." State officials can press drug makers for deeper discounts in phase two of the program, but say they have not decided whether that will happen. Pallang said she visits CVS and Rite Aid for prescriptions, but since neither store is joining Maine Rx Plus, she said she will go elsewhere. "If it means changing to Hannaford (a participating store), that's what we'll do," she said. DHS staffs its help line, (866) Rx-Maine (866-796-2463) between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Former members of the now-defunct Healthy Maine Prescriptions program need not call, state officials said. By next week, 73,000 Maine Rx Plus membership cards will have been mailed to all of them. Healthy Maine provided discounts as high as 25 percent for people within 300 percent of poverty before the pharmaceutical industry convinced a federal appeals court to shut it down in December 2002. Staff Writer Josie Huang can be contacted at 791-6364 or at:
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