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Military sees increase in wounded in Afghanistan- Far from winding down, the numbers of wounded U.S. soldiers coming home have continued to swell. The problem is especially acute among those who fought in Afghanistan, where nearly four times as many troops were injured in October as a year ago.
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Reps. Berry and Jones Conference Call on Prompt Payment Bill and University of Texas Study on Medicare Part D Reimbursement
WHAT: Rep. Marion Berry (D-Ark.) and Walter Jones (R-N.C.),
original sponsors of a bill aimed at addressing the
slow reimbursement of Medicare Part D prescription drug
claims, will participate in a conference call unveiling a
University of Texas at Austin study confirming the severity of
the problem.
WHEN: Thursday, September 6, 2007, at 2:00 pm (Eastern Time)
DIAL-IN #: 800-944-8766 (Conference Code is 36481)
WHY: Slow Part D payments have forced community pharmacies to
borrow tens of thousands of dollars since the program's
launch. Preliminary findings from the annual NCPA-Pfizer
Digest survey of community pharmacies' financial health found
that 1,152 closed their stores in 2006, after years of
stability. Part D and its slow payments were the only new
factor introduced into the marketplace over the last year.
The University of Texas at Austin's Center for
Pharmacoeconomic Studies' August 2007 report called the
"Length of Prescription Drug Payment Times by Medicare Part D
Plans" calculated the time between claim adjudication and when
the pharmacy received payment in 2006. The data came from 3
million Part D claims from 145 community pharmacies and 17
chain drug stores.
It found the median percentage of community pharmacy claims
that are over 30 days was 50.1 percent, including 17.2 percent
that took over 60 days. Pharmacies commonly have to pay their
suppliers every 15 days, yet the median percentage of claims
that arrived in that time span was only 1.3 percent.
Reps. Berry and Jones' bill H.R. 1474, the Fair and Speedy
Treatment (FAST) of Medicare Prescription Drug Claims Act of
2007, has nearly 200 cosponsors. The Senate version is S.1954,
the Pharmacy Access Improvement Act (PhAIM) of 2007. Both bills
require complete and accurate Part D prescription drug claims
submitted electronically be paid within 14 days, and paper
claims within 30 days.
SPEAKERS: Rep. Marion Berry (D-Ark.)
Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.)
Charles Sewell, Senior Vice President, Government Affairs, NCPA
Kristin Richards PHD, Research Associate, Center for
Pharmacoeconmic Studies, University of Texas at Austin
CONTACT:
/PRNewswire-USNewswire --
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