WASHINGTON — Two members of Congress, Rep. Nancy Boyda, D-Kan., and Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, R-Mo., introduced a bill this week to challenge the final rule for Medicaid reimbursement to pharmacies for generic prescription drugs. The Medicaid final rule was released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Baltimore, on July 6. In support of the new bill, the National Association of Chain Drug Stores president and chief executive officer Steven C. Anderson said, “NACDS supports the bill introduced by Rep. Boyda and Rep. Emerson, and thanks them sincerely for their commitment to community pharmacy and to the patients they serve as health care providers. The legislative process and the formulas for prescription drug reimbursement are similar in that they both are complex and both involve careful balance of interdependent parts.” NACDS, along with the National Community Pharmacists Association, both in Alexandria, Va., are supporting the introduction of this new bill, The Patient Access to Medicaid Generic Prescription Drugs Act of 2007, saying that the CMS rule will reimburse retail pharmacies for much less than the cost of those drugs.

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