Medicaid Rx pad security rule is delayed

The AMA applauds postponement of the compliance deadline, as stakeholders plan to seek further clarification from CMS.

By Doug Trapp, AMNews staff. Oct. 15, 2007.

Washington -- Physicians and pharmacists now have six more months to prepare for a law requiring many Medicaid prescriptions to be written on tamper-resistant pads.

Congress adopted the delay in late September. President Bush signed the measure Sept. 29 -- two days before the new law was to take effect.

The provision mandating such pads was part of a military spending bill adopted in May. It required that by Oct. 1, written Medicaid prescriptions have at least one feature to prevent unauthorized copying, erasure or modification, or counterfeiting, and include all three features by Oct. 1, 2008.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued guidance on Aug. 17 specifying that the law did not apply to prescriptions paid for by Medicaid managed care organizations or to electronic, faxed or phoned prescriptions, among other exemptions.

Stakeholders on the issue, including the American Medical Association, generally applauded the vote to postpone the rules until April 1, 2008. "The six-month delay addresses physicians' concerns that the implementation deadline of Oct. 1 was unreasonable and could harm Medicaid patients' access to prescribed drugs," said AMA Board of Trustees Chair Edward L. Langston, MD.

John Norton, spokesman for the National Community Pharmacists Assn., said a longer delay would have been a lot to ask for. "Six months is what we figured was ultimately reasonable."

American Pharmacists Assn. spokesman Hrant Jamgochian gave a qualified thanks for the delay. "At the same time, it doesn't compare to the 18 months it took to implement the New York State program," he said.