The key word here is "non electronic prescriptions"...if you are a physician, and affected by the new law, do yourself a favor and enroll in the FREE E-PRESCRIBING INITIATIVE. There is a permanent link on this page as well to the site. IT DOESN'T COST ANYTHING FOR PHYSICIANS. If you have a computer connected to the Internet, you are set. Be aware there are penalties for the pharmacies as well for not following directions on the paper pads...one other thing to think about...why e-prescribing...when you send paper, you create work at the pharmacy...called data entry...extra labor for the drug stores...so the choice is there to continue to battle paper, or start electronically transmitting prescriptions...BD
"Nobody really knew where this came from," says Jamila Edwards of the California Primary Care Association. "The patient's going to be in the middle thinking, 'How come I didn't get my medication?' "
"In our state, very few doctors use these kinds of pads," says Doug Porter, the Medicaid director in Washington. "I think some people will be denied service, and that will be a very bad situation."
WASHINGTON An obscure provision slipped into a $120 billion Iraq spending bill in May threatens to leave some poor and disabled Medicaid recipients without prescription drugs in October. In a case of unintended consequences, Congress inserted a rule cracking down on Medicaid fraud that requires that all non-electronic prescriptions for Medicaid patients be written on tamper-resistant paper. The rule was devised as a way to raise nearly $150 million over five years for public hospitals, the amount that Medicaid fraud costs the federal government. It has been criticized as too much, too soon by pharmacists, doctors, patient advocacy groups and state Medicaid officials. They say doctors could leave Medicaid, pharmacists could lose money and patients could be denied drugs.
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