HHS Approves Projects To Increase Access To Prescription Drugs for Low-Income and Rural Residents in Washington, New York States

Low-income residents in Spokane, Wash., and Ticonderoga, N.Y., will have increased access to prescription drugs under two new projects approved last week by HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson. The Spokane project, to be managed by the Community Health Association of Spokane, will provide increased access to prescription drugs for rural residents. Under the system, care providers at rural health clinics will fax prescription orders to the central Community Health Association pharmacy. A pharmacist there will fill the order through a computer link to a locked vending machine at the clinics. Then a clinic pharmacy technician will retrieve the medication from the vending machine, label it and deliver it to the patient. At that point, the patient has the option of using videoconferencing equipment to receive counseling from a central pharmacy center worker on proper drug usage. About 13,500 rural or low-income residents are expected to use the system. Under the Ticonderoga project, Hudson Headwaters Health Network will contract with pharmacies to make drug services available to patients who utilize the network's 11 clinics. A release from HHS offers no further details about that program. Thompson said, "These imaginative demonstrations offer solutions to two circumstances -- isolation and lack of competition -- that conspire to deprive uninsured and underserved Americans of the prescription medications they need at a fair price." The projects are part of an initiative that the Health Resources and Services Administration launched in June to help organizations in the 340B drug discount program find "creative ways to reduce administrative costs and improve access to prescription drugs." Under the 340B discount program, drug manufacturers must sell medications to certain safety-net care providers at a pre-set discount rate, which averages 25% to 40% on most drugs (HHS release, 12/28).