Texas Panel That Guides Decisions On Medicaid Prescriptions Will Require More Details About Pharma Funding
The decision follows a national investigation by NPR and The Center for Public Integrity looking at influence by drug makers. In other Medicaid news, Nebraska gets a step closer to a referendum on whether to expand the program.
NPR/The Center for Public Integrity:
Texas Tightens Disclosure Rules Following Medicaid Investigation
A Medicaid committee in Texas is requiring those who comment at its meetings to disclose more details about their ties to pharmaceutical companies after a Center for Public Integrity and NPR investigation into the drug industry's influence on such boards. ... Officials in Arizona, Colorado and New York have already taken action. The Texas committee, which helps decide which medicines are best for patients and should therefore be preferred by Medicaid, will now ask speakers to disclose verbally and in writing if they have "directly or indirectly received payments or gifts" from any pharmaceutical companies and to identify those firms, Texas Health and Human Services Commission spokeswoman Kelli Weldon said in an email. (Essley Whyte, 8/17)
Omaha (Neb.) World-Herald:
Medicaid Expansion Petition Clears One Hurdle To Making The Ballot
A proposal to expand Medicaid to more low-income Nebraskans has cleared one hurdle to appearing on the November ballot. Secretary of State John Gale said Friday that a petition to put the proposal before voters has more than met the requirement to collect valid signatures from more than 5 percent of registered voters in 38 counties. ... To put the measure on the ballot, the petition also must have valid signatures from at least 84,269 registered voters. It also must survive a legal challenge filed by a state lawmaker and former lawmaker. (Stoddard, 8/17)
