Georgia, Minnesota Community Health Centers To Provide Lower-Cost Drugs to Uninsured Under HHS-Approved Projects
HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson on April 1 announced the approval of demonstration projects in Minnesota and Georgia that will allow certain community health centers there to buy prescription drugs and sell them at reduced prices to uninsured patients. Southside Community Health Services, West Side Community Health Services and Model Cities Health Center in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area will create a purchasing and distribution system called the Neighborhood Pharmaceutical Care Network. The more than 13,000 uninsured individuals who use the centers will be eligible to purchase prescription drugs at reduced prices. The Medical Center, the Community Health Center of South Columbus and Stewart Webster Rural Health in the Columbus, Ga., area will operate an identical program. The demonstration projects are part of an HHS initiative announced last June that allows certain health care organizations to implement various measures to reduce administrative costs and make purchasing medications easier for patients. The first two demonstration projects to use community health centers to distribute reduced-cost medications -- in Washington and New York states -- were approved last December. Thompson said, "These projects ... reflect our commitment to provide those most in need with access to affordable prescription drugs. These networks will be able to purchase drugs in larger quantities and pass the savings on to the people that they serve -- many of whom do not have any health coverage" (HHS
release, 4/1).
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