{"id":25706,"date":"2019-03-29T08:42:44","date_gmt":"2019-03-29T14:42:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=25706"},"modified":"2019-03-29T08:42:44","modified_gmt":"2019-03-29T14:42:44","slug":"bill-would-expand-medicaid-preferred-drug-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=25706","title":{"rendered":"Bill would expand Medicaid preferred drug list"},"content":{"rendered":"

Antidepressant, antipsychotic and anticonvulsant medication would be added to the Medicaid Preferred Drug List under a bill considered March 28 by the Health and Human Services Committee.<\/p>\n

\"Sen.
Sen. Steve Erdman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The list was established by the Legislature in 2008 and contains several classes of drugs administered by a committee which, in conjunction with the state Department of Health and Human Services, determines the best and most cost-effective medications on the market for inclusion.<\/p>\n

Bayard Sen. Steve Erdman, sponsor of LB245, said the bill would save the state $2.3 million by allowing generic versions of medications in the three categories to be included on the list. The bill would not prevent a doctor from prescribing a brand-name medication, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe [federal] Office of Generic Drugs follows a rigorous review to make sure they do the following: have the same active ingredient, have the same strength and use the same dosage,\u201d Erdman said.<\/p>\n

Carisa Schweitzer Masek, pharmacy director for the DHHS Division of Medicaid and Long-Term Care, testified in support of the bill. She said that since the list\u2019s creation, many generic drugs in the three classes covered under LB245 have become available, and now the majority of patients begin their treatment with a generic medication.<\/p>\n

Schweitzer Masek said that one-third of the state\u2019s Medicaid drug expenses are for medications in these three classes.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The bill] would lessen the administrative burden on providers, reduce burdens on recipients, not negatively affect care and protect taxpayers,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Psychiatrist Beth Ann Brooks testified in opposition to LB245 on behalf of the Nebraska Psychiatric Association and several other health provider organizations, saying it could decrease the quality of patient care. It is impossible to predict how a patient will react to a particular antipsychotic drug, she said, and cost considerations should not be a primary prescribing factor.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen psychiatric practitioners are forced into a normal formulary, less than optimal care can result in increased costs incurred from higher levels of care, including hospitalizations,\u201d Brooks said.<\/p>\n

Bill Mueller also testified against LB245 on behalf of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. He said drugs in the three categories should not be on the preferred drug list and doctors should have complete control over which medications they are prescribing.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo say that it makes it easier for providers, I don\u2019t think is accurate,\u201d Mueller said.<\/p>\n

The committee took no immediate action on the bill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Antidepressant, antipsychotic and anticonvulsant medication would be added to the Medicaid Preferred Drug List under a bill considered March 28 by the Health and Human Services Committee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25695,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[12],"tags":[192],"class_list":["post-25706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health-and-human-services","tag-sen-steve-erdman"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/LB245Erdman3-28-19a.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25706"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25706\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25709,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25706\/revisions\/25709"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}