Walgreens pharmacies across the state of Washington will stop accepting prescriptions from new Medicaid patients beginning April 16, 2010. All of the state’s 121 stores will continue to serve current Medicaid recipients but will not take any new consumers because of the heavy Medicaid reimbursement reductions recently passed in the state of Washington.
This move comes on the heels of two other pharmacies that have already stopped taking prescriptions from Medicaid patients. Bartell Drugs decided to stop taking new patients last month and Ritzville Drugs stopped in November.
Doug Porter, Washington state’s director of Medicaid, isn’t worried about these pharmacies, reported The Seattle Times. Porter said that there are many more providers than they need in the network.
The state of Washington reimburses pharmacies less than the break-even point for at least 95 percent of brand name prescriptions for Medicaid patients. Washington currently has one million Medicaid recipients and that number isn’t going to decline any time soon.
Pharmacies and trade association went as far as taking legal action against the state and the lawsuit is pending. Providers argue that the state does not follow federal law in setting reimbursement rates because the rates are too low.
It’s one of those health care situations where profits are involved, so someone is going to get the short end of the stick. And unfortunately it’s frequently the consumer.