Prescription for confusion

Congress needs to give physicians more time to comply with an anti-prescription fraud law -- as well as limit the law's scope

Editorial. Oct. 1, 2007.

When Congress passed a law requiring physicians to use tamper-resistant pads for certain Medicaid prescriptions, the intent was to prevent people from using fraudulent means to get the medication they should not receive.

But in its haste to accomplish that noble goal, Congress is creating an unintended consequence -- preventing people from using legitimate means to get the medication they should receive.

After the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services took about three months to issue guidance regarding the law signed on May 25, physicians, states and pharmacists were left with an unrealistic 1½ months to meet the Oct. 1 deadline for complying with the law. By the National Assn. of Chain Drug Stores' count, that law would have affected 330 million Medicaid prescriptions written in 2006. This figure takes into account a number of exemptions in the law including faxed, electronic and Medicaid managed care prescriptions.

To prevent the risk that these patients will not get their prescriptions while physicians struggle to hurry up and follow the law, Congress needs to pass legislation quickly that would delay the earlier law's implementation and limit its scope to schedule II narcotics -- the real target of efforts to prevent prescription fraud.

In the 13 states that have adopted similar measures affecting Medicaid patients, great pains often were taken to ensure that physicians and pharmacists had the necessary time to adapt. In New York, for example, the state worked 18 months with physicians before its anti-prescription fraud legislation became effective in April 2006. It even provided, for free, tamper-proof prescription pads to physicians.