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NACDS Urges Changes to Drug Reimbursements

The National Association of Chain Drug Stores, in a letter sent this week to three committee chairmen who endorse health care reform bill H.R. 3200, recommends changes to the average manufacturer price definition and AMP multiplier in calculating drug reimbursements for retail pharmacy.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The National Association of Chain Drug Stores, in a letter sent this week to three committee chairmen who endorse health care reform bill H.R. 3200, recommends changes to the average manufacturer price definition and AMP multiplier in calculating drug reimbursements for retail pharmacy.

The letter states that some entities, like hospitals and clinics, which are not part of the retail class of trade, are still included in the AMP definition. These extra inclusions “skew the AMP benchmark downward,” according to Steven C. Anderson, president and CEO of NACDS.

He then wrote that these entities should not be included in the figures that determine pharmacy reimbursement. He also wrote that the 130% AMP multiplier in the legislation “will result in insufficient reimbursement to pharmacies for dispensing generic drugs in the Medicaid program.”

Furthermore, the NACDS worries that an insufficient reimbursement will “end incentives to dispense generic medications” in the Medicaid program.

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