Bill Providing Medicaid Assistance to States Advances

Legislation that includes $26 billion in aid and Medicaid support for cash-strapped state governments advanced yesterday in the Senate and then at the end of the day House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made a surprise announcement that she will call the House back into session next week to approve the legislation.

The legislation is generally supported since it directly helps cash-strapped states and includes some emergency type measures that will help to save key jobs for teachers, police officers and other government workers. The legislation also includes some health care related components. Specifically it provides an exclusion for Average Manufacturer Price (AMP) for inhalation, infusion and injectable drugs not generally dispenses through a retail community pharmacy. There is some concern about the specific wording of this component and how reimbursement would be impacted.
Also of note, the legislation does not include any further revisions or expansion to the 340b program which had been previously included.