Senator Calls For Increased Dental Coverage; Tamper-Proof Prescription Drug Pad Requirement Could Be Delayed

Main Category: Medicare / Medicaid / SCHIP
Also Included In: Dentistry;  Primary Care / General Practice;  Pharmacy / Pharmacist
Article Date: 01 Oct 2007 - 10:00 PDT

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Two newspapers recently reported on developments in Medicaid. Summaries appear below.

• Children's dental coverage: Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) on Wednesday during a conference on Medicaid hosted by America's Health Insurance Plans said that states and the federal government should raise Medicaid reimbursement for dental services, fully fund public health programs and invest in the dental work force nationwide, CQ HealthBeat reports. He added, "We can pass the best laws possible, but those laws are not worth the paper they are written on if not implemented properly. That is where the insurance companies come into play." Insurance companies "have a profound responsibility that comes with [their] role as a public health provider," he said, adding that insurers who do not cover dental services could be faced with more expensive treatment later for preventable illnesses (Carey, CQ HealthBeat, 9/26).
  
  A webcast of the AHIP conference is available online at kaisernetwork.org.
  
  WBUR's "Here & Now" on Wednesday included a discussion with Richard Niederman, who runs a school-based dental care program for underserved children, about children's dental care (Young, "Here & Now," WBUR, 9/26). Audio of the segment is available online.
  
  
• Tamper-proof pads: Physicians and pharmacists could receive an additional six months to implement a new Medicaid requirement that requires prescriptions to be written on tamper-resistant pads to receive reimbursement, CongressDaily reports. The Senate on Tuesday passed a stand-alone bill to delay the rule, and the House on Wednesday passed the suspension as part of a package extending programs that expire on Sunday. The Senate also will have to approve the provision as part of the extension package, according to an aide (Edney, CongressDaily, 9/27).
  
  NPR's "Morning Edition" on Thursday reported on the bill. The segment includes comments from Hurant Jan Goshen of the American Pharmacists Association; Ernie Boyd, executive director of the Ohio Pharmacists Association; and Virgilio Licona, associate medical services director of the Salud Family Health Centers in Colorado (Rovner, "Morning Edition," NPR, 9/27). Audio of the segment is available online.

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation© 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.