Snowe Backs Bipartisan Effort to Relieve Part D Pharmacy Burden

Statement

Snowe Backs Bipartisan Effort to Relieve Part D Pharmacy Burden

U.S. Senator Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine), a member of the Senate Finance Committee, last night joined her Senate colleagues in sponsoring bipartisan legislation that will address serious obstacles that pharmacies have faced when serving seniors under the Medicare Prescription Drug benefit. The Pharmacy Access Improvement Act of 2007, introduced by Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) and Ranking Member Charles Grassley (R-IA), addresses a significant number of problems which persist, over 18 months after the implementation of the Medicare Part D Benefit.

"When we first instituted the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit program to help seniors with the high cost of prescription drugs, it was our pharmacists who stood on the front lines and ensured that every Maine senior was served - regardless of the many difficulties they confronted," said Senator Snowe. "Today our pharmacists continue to struggle with problems which simply have not been addressed; therefore it is essential that this legislation is passed in order to do so.

"This legislation will lessen the burdens that have been placed upon our community pharmacies - including a failure of some drug plans to pay promptly for the prescriptions they fill for our seniors. This legislation will also assure greater equity in how Medicare drug plans work with our nation's pharmacies, and will ensure that the pharmacists who have been so critical to the success of Part D are given the support they need to protect the health of the millions who rely on Part D. Maine pharmacies have championed the new assistance seniors have received, and I am pleased to join with my colleagues to see this legislation introduced, and will work to see its provisions enacted."

The Pharmacy Access Improvement Act includes provisions to:

• Assure that more pharmacies can participate in the Part D benefit.
• Provide that pharmacies will be paid in no more than 14 days for the prescriptions they fill for Medicare beneficiaries. This addresses critical payment delays that pharmacies have encountered and brings Part D in line with common payment terms, including that of Medicaid in Maine.
• Require that pharmacists have access to toll free help lines to communicate with Part D plan sponsors.
• Prohibit "co-branding" of drug plans with pharmacies in ways that would confuse seniors - such as drug plan benefit cards which are printed so that they may mislead beneficiaries to think that they are limited to the use of a single pharmacy chain.
• Require timely updating of prescription drug pricing standards.
• Conduct a study on prescribing fees and pharmacies' costs to fill a Part D prescription, so that pharmacies may be reasonably reimbursed for serving seniors under Part D.

Senator Snowe was joined by Senators Gordon Smith (R-OR), Thad Cochran (R-MS), Mike Enzi (R-WY), Kent Conrad (D-ND), Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Ken Salazar (D-CO), and Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) in cosponsoring the bill.

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