Preferred Drug List for Medicaid to Launch in August

None by KCPW

(KCPW News) Utah is on track to implement a preferred drug list for Medicaid patients by August. Lawmakers approved the plan in hopes of saving up to 10 million dollars a year in drug costs. Initially, the Utah Department of Health plans to include only acid reflux and cholesterol drugs on the list. Next will come certain classes of painkillers, sleep medicines and epilepsy drugs. But lawmakers continue to insist they will not allow the state to limit doctors on psychotropic drugs they can prescribe.

"By and large, the majority of the Legislature was on the same page that we don't want to mess around in the psychotropic arena," says Senator Sheldon Killpack.

The Department of Health is creating a panel of nine doctors and pharmacists that will review medical research and propose drugs for the preferred list.

In approving the PDL, lawmakers also gave doctors the ability to bypass the list by writing "dispense as written" on the prescription. That nearly disqualified Utah from joining a coalition of other states purchasing drugs in bulk. But State Medicaid director Michael Hales says Utah has now gained preliminary approval to join the group after promising to educate doctors on the health and cost-saving advantages of sticking to drugs on the preferred list.

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