Legislative Activity

TennCare Pharmacy Cuts: Opinion Piece by TPA President Jim McBride on Tennessean.com

Posted on April 10, 2015

In a letter published online on Tennessean.com, Jim McBride, PharmD, President of the Tennessee Pharmacists Association, discusses the potential impact of proposed pharmacy cuts to the TennCare pharmacy program for the upcoming fiscal year 2016. The proposed cuts of over $24 million in the TennCare Pharmacy Program would drastically reduce reimbursement rates to pharmacies for brand-name, generic and specialty drugs, threatening the health of Tennessee’s most vulnerable patients.

A decision could be made as early as next week, so the time to act is now! Join Dr. McBride in urging your legislators to oppose any attempt to enact cuts to TennCare pharmacy reimbursement rates, and to support budget amendments that would restore the proposed pharmacy cuts. Please share Dr. McBride’s letter with your colleagues and your patients, and ask them to contact their legislators, too.

Summary of Proposed Cuts (with proposed amount of reduction):

Increased Buprenorphine Limits [$1.5 million (state) / $4.5 million (total)]
Compounding Cuts [$908,300 (state) / $2.6 million (total)]
Pharmacy AWP Direct Reimbursement Cuts [$6 million (state) / $17 million (total)]

TPA appreciates all you do every day to improve the lives of patients and to advance the pharmacy profession. Thank you for your assistance and advocacy efforts!