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Local News | Walgreens: no new Medicaid patients as of April 16 | Seattle Times Newspaper

Does medicaid allow patients to chose brand name if generic is available?

flopstock;1298790 wrote: Does medicaid allow patients to chose brand name if generic is available?


[Deleted] Sorry that question can be interpreted in more than one way...

On that I'd have to believe they probably can but if the brand name drug exceeds what they cover then they'll have to pay the difference. I could be wrong but I doubt it. I'll look into it.

Then in September came another blow. The average wholesale price is calculated by a private company, which was accused in a Massachusetts lawsuit of fraudulently inflating its figures. The company did not admit wrongdoing but agreed in a court settlement to ratchet its figures down by about 4 percent.

That agreement took effect in September — and prompted a lawsuit by a group of pharmacies and trade associations that said Washington state didn't follow federal law in setting its reimbursement rate, and that that rate is too low. The lawsuit is pending. Local News | Walgreens: no new Medicaid patients as of April 16 | Seattle Times Newspaper


I can't imagine this will go on for long. Would be in Walgreen's best interest to continue supplying medicaid recipients.

It should be kept in mind that this statement from Walgreen is just related to the state of Washington.

Medicaid is administered by the individual states, and the state governs how reimbursements are made.

Of course we could see the same thing in other states in the future.

This site has some good pointers to how Medicaid differs by state.

K.Snyder;1298798 wrote: I can't imagine this will go on for long. Would be in Walgreen's best interest to continue supplying medicaid recipients.


I would think that the foot traffic in the stores would decline if they cut it off entirely, so tht's most likely why they just aren't accepting any new ones.

K.Snyder;1298796 wrote: [Deleted] Sorry that question can be interpreted in more than one way...



On that I'd have to believe they probably can but if the brand name drug exceeds what they cover then they'll have to pay the difference. I could be wrong but I doubt it. I'll look into it.


Unless I misunderstood my pharmacist last year, without my doctor indicating it on the prescription form, the pharmacy can't just substitute a generic on my prescriptions. And that's with paid insurance coverage. That's why I wondered if medicaid forced a generic choice if it is available.

flopstock;1298948 wrote: Unless I misunderstood my pharmacist last year, without my doctor indicating it on the prescription form, the pharmacy can't just substitute a generic on my prescriptions. And that's with paid insurance coverage. That's why I wondered if medicaid forced a generic choice if it is available.


I might do some research on this foop. I started to do it for you but my ADD kicked in and I started thinking about my favorite kind of bbq sauce and gave up.

Maybe you will have better luck focusing.

See .......this is what happens when a customer takes over 120 days to pay up, they get shut off.........

flopstock;1298948 wrote: Unless I misunderstood my pharmacist last year, without my doctor indicating it on the prescription form, the pharmacy can't just substitute a generic on my prescriptions. And that's with paid insurance coverage. That's why I wondered if medicaid forced a generic choice if it is available.


I asked my instructor today and she said that you can choose the brand name but the recipient has to pay the difference between what is covered on medicaid and I assume this is correct with insurance as well.

A generic name cannot be substituted because the generic name is the name of the drug derived from it's chemical composition so all that changes are the brand names. Anything else would be a huge breach of Pharmaceutical Ethics! :yh_rotfl :yh_wink :yh_kiss