Justice Dept. defending Bush's Medicare Rx cards

The government says the program was created legally and that seniors who now pay full price for their prescriptions would benefit from it.

By Tanya Albert, AMNews staff. Sept. 3, 2001.

The government has the authority to create a program that would give seniors "Medicare Rx" cards, the Dept. of Justice said in an August court brief defending the proposed program.

Under the law, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has the authority to provide information, counseling and assistance to Medicare patients through a "health insurance advisory service program," the government said.

That's what President Bush's proposed prescription drug discount card program sets out to do, the Justice Dept. said. If the federal court stops the Dept. of Health and Human Services and CMS from implementing the program, senior citizens will suffer, the agency added.

The government's comments are in response to a lawsuit that the National Assn. of Chain Drug Stores and the National Community Pharmacists Assn. filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in July.

The associations' suit asks the court for an injunction to stop the government from implementing the prescription drug program this fall. The groups say CMS and HHS don't have the legislative authority to create the plan. They also claim that the government broke the law by secretly meeting with private firms to hash out the Rx card idea and that the program could financially hurt pharmacies. [...]