Tennessee To Develop Single Drug Formulary for TennCare
TennCare, Tennessee's Medicaid managed care program, will implement a preferred drug list next spring that could save the state at least $100 million, the Memphis Commercial Appeal reports. Under the plan by the governor's Commission on the Future of TennCare and the state comptroller's office, Tennessee would select which drugs would be on the list and could receive rebates provided by drug companies to put their medicines on the list. Presently, each of the nine TennCare managed care companies have their own drug formularies, and the plans and their pharmacy benefits managers receive the rebates. According to the state comptroller's office, Tennessee would be able to receive up to a 20% rebate from drug companies, instead of the "much smaller" rebates that PBMs receive, the Commercial Appeal reports. "The way we're going to set this up, instead of PBMs setting the formulary and negotiating the rebates with the pharmaceutical manufacturers, the state would do that and use its consolidated buying power to get those rebates and bring them back to the state," Manny Martins, director of TennCare, said. The Tennessee Medical Association praised the idea of a single formulary, saying that doctors have found it difficult to keep track of the nine different formularies. Gov.-elect Phil Bredesen (D) said he did not know the plan's specific details, but did say he supports the idea of a single drug formulary (Wade, Memphis Commercial Appeal, 11/8).
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