Editorial: More time needed

Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2007 | 7:12 a.m.

The $120 billion Iraq spending bill passed this year included a provision that could wreak havoc on Medicaid recipients trying to get prescriptions filled after Oct. 1.

The measure, which was slipped into the spending legislation Congress passed in May, is designed to make it more difficult for patients to fraudulently obtain prescription drugs. It seeks to do so by requiring that prescriptions for Medicaid patients be written only on "tamper-resistant" prescription pads.

Prescriptions submitted to pharmacies by doctors via e-mail, the telephone or fax machine are exempt from the law. And pharmacists can fill prescriptions that are written on the wrong type of paper, as long as they obtain the doctor's confirmation by telephone, fax or e-mail or on tamper-resistant paper within three days.

But as noted in a story by USA Today on Tuesday, patient advocates, doctors and pharmacists groups, and state Medicaid officials say there has not been enough time to educate everyone about the new rule. They have asked Congress to delay the rule by a year.

The fear is that Medicaid patients could be denied their prescriptions if they are not written on the correct type of paper. Critics also say pharmacists could lose money because they could be forced to refund Medicaid payments for prescriptions that were filled after being improperly submitted.

Very few doctors use the tamper-resistant pads unless laws require them to do so, state Medicaid officials told USA Today. Currently, 12 states require using such pads for prescriptions of heavy-duty painkillers. New York requires tamper-proof paper for all prescriptions but allowed health care professionals 18 months to prepare for that rule.

It is important to make certain that people are not obtaining prescription drugs illegally. But it is only right to allow pharmacists and medical professionals enough time to adequately prepare for abiding by this new rule so that Medicaid patients - who receive such assistance because they are poor or disabled - can obtain the medicine they need without interruption.