Iowa officials are examing a program in Oregon that’s reducing the costs of prescription drugs for the poor, disabled and elderly who qualify for government-paid Medicaid insurance.Governor Tom Vilsack says a panel of researchers in Oregon evaluate drugs and draw up a list of which prescription medications are most effective and the best “value” for treating things like arthritis, high blood pressure and pain. Vilsack says physicians in Oregon are required to prescribe the drugs on the “preferred” list unless there’d be some medical reason for prescribing a different, more expensive drug.Vilsack’s meeting privately with key legislators to try to come up with a solution to the problem, because the state’s Medicaid budget is millions of dollars in the red. Last year, Republican legislators proposed a two-dollar co-payment for Medicaid recipients who didn’t use generic drugs as one cost-saving measure, but Vilsack rejected that idea.
