E&C Exempts Nursing Homes, Hospice & Others From Pharmacy Lock-In

At the urging of seniors’ advocates and long-term care pharmacies, House Energy & Commerce members tweaked the pharmacy lock-in measure in the latest version of their Cures bill to exempt patients in nursing homes, hospice, intermediate care facilities for the mentally retarded and facilities that contract with a single pharmacy to dispense frequently abused drugs.

The updated lock-in measure, which aims to curb prescription drug abuse, is part of 21st Century Cures legislation that the committee is scheduled to vote on Thursday (May 21).

The draft bill that the committee released just last week exempted hospice from the measure, but it left it to CMS’ discretion to exempt others, such as nursing homes. Long-term care pharmacies were pleased with the measure but continued lobbying for an outright exemption for nursing homes. The pharmacy lock-in measure has changed with each iteration of the Cures bill. The second draft added a beneficiary-appeals measure, but lobbyists for seniors and long-term care pharmacies said that was insufficient.

Seniors’ advocates and long-term care pharmacies support drug-abuse prevention, but they worry the pharmacy lock-in measure in the Cures bill would make it difficult for beneficiaries to obtain vital medicine.

Alan Rosenbloom, president of Senior Care Pharmacy Coalition, which represents independent long-term care pharmacies, said long-term care pharmacies already are subject to regulations stricter than those that would be applied to so-called safe pharmacy networks in the 21st Century Cures bill. — John Wilkerson (jwilkerson@iwpnews.com)

Click here to see the original article on the Inside Health Policy website.