West Virginia Continues Plan for Medicaid Preferred Drug List Despite PhRMA Lawsuit

West Virginia is pursuing its plan to establish a Medicaid prescription drug formulary in an effort to reduce Medicaid prescription drug costs, which have doubled in the last five years, despite a federal lawsuit filed by the Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers of America to stop states from creating preferred drug lists, the Charleston Gazette reports (Kabler, Charleston Gazette, 8/27). Under the plan, beneficiaries would have to receive approval from Medicaid administrators before they could fill some prescriptions. They would have access to any drug, but doctors would have an incentive to prescribe drugs on the state's list. For a drug to be included on the formulary, pharmaceutical companies would have to offer the state a discount (Kaiser Daily Health Report, 8/7). The suit claims that preferred-drug lists "illegally restrict" Medicaid patients' access to medical care because the process of getting authorization to prescribe brand-name drugs is "too cumbersome," the Gazette reports. "You can choose, because you have disposable income, to spend it on Claritin. [Medicaid beneficiaries] can't make the decision to get the drug that's best for them," John Brown, West Virginia lobbyist for PhRMA, said. West Virginia is not explicitly named in the suit, but a verdict in favor of PhRMA would "effectively derail ongoing state efforts to establish a Medicaid drug formulary," according to John Law, spokesperson for the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources. "We're watching [the suit] real closely," Law said, adding, "We're proceeding as if the suit is not going to affect us (Charleston Gazette, 8/27). See related story on oral arguments in the PhRMA suit.