Last year, when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed a prescription drug purchasing pool as an alternative to helping Californians buy Lipitor and other drugs in Canada, he was derided for caving in to the drug industry.
How times have changed.
Consumer advocates are now pushing for those very same purchasing pools in Los Angeles and statewide, especially since it looks like the Canadian government may crack down on U.S. residents buying drugs in Canada.
“The whole idea of using Canadian sources is rapidly drying up,” acknowledged Jerry Flanagan, a health advocate with the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights who helped organize a “drug train” last year that took seniors from San Diego to Vancouver to buy Canadian drugs.
Earlier this month, Canadian Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh announced that he may issue regulations forbidding Canadian physicians to co-sign prescriptions a requirement to get drugs there from patients they have not personally seen. Critics of the Bush administration suggest that the Canadian government may have been bullied into taking that stand under pressure from the White House.
Flanagan is working on a proposal with Los Angeles City Councilman and mayoral candidate Antonio Villaraigosa to develop a local purchasing pool that would be run by the city.
Villaraigosa is in the midst of appointing an advisory board that will flesh out details of the proposal. It is not expected to come before the council for several months.
One question will be how a local pool might work with the state prescription pool that Schwarzenegger has proposed. Legislation on the governor’s proposal has already been introduced in the state Senate.
Meanwhile, support for having the city import or possibly assist in purchasing Canadian drugs has cooled since City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo issued an opinion that such a move would violate federal law.
Los Angeles City Councilman Dennis Zine, who had voiced interest in a Canadian plan, still wants the city to find some way to lower drug costs. “We are going to reduce the cost one way or another,” said Zine, who will hear any prescription drug proposal as chair of the council’s personnel committee.
Managed Care Savings
Though the governor is calling for health cuts in his new budget, the reductions are less severe than many had feared. Much of the planned savings would come from a push to get more Medi-Cal patients in managed care.
The approach is drawing praise from the state’s health maintenance organizations, including Health Net Inc., the state’s second largest Medi-Cal managed care insurer.
“We think it’s a good proposal,” said Dave Meadows, head of state health programs for the Woodland Hills-based insurer. “It’s been a viable business for us to be in, and this is new business for us.”
The Schwarzenegger administration wants to add 750,000 new enrollees to the program, which already serves 816,000 low-income patients in 22 counties.
The enrollees would come by expanding the program to the aged, blind and disabled in existing counties and by adding another 13 counties. The additions are projected to save the state $137 million by 2007.
The California Association of Health Plans, an industry trade group, also lauded the proposal.
Ahhh Choo!
All those worries about a flu vaccination shortage may have been unnecessary after all the region is so far experiencing one of its lightest flu seasons in years.
Although precise records are not kept on the number of flu cases (doctors are not required to report them), authorities say that there have been no serious outbreaks in hospitals, nursing homes or schools.
“Some years are heavy and some years are light, and this year has been a relatively light year,” said Dr. Jonathan Fielding, the county’s director of public health.
Federal health officials estimate that 36,000 people die each year from flu complications, which would mean Los Angeles County, with nearly 10 million residents, would record about 1,200 deaths. Fielding says he has little doubt that the number of county flu deaths is below the seasonal average.
Earlier this month, the Centers for Disease Control lifted restrictions on the flu vaccine, citing adequate supplies. Access was restricted last year after contamination problems at a U.K. plant that makes half the U.S. supply.
Here and There
Torrance-based HealthCare Partners Medical Group, which serves more than 400,000 patients, has merged with Harriman Jones Medical Group, adding 43,000 managed care patients in the Long Beach area to the medical group Citrus Valley Health Partners, which operates three San Gabriel Valley hospitals, is pumping $1.1 million into its nurse training program after receiving a $512,000 grant from the Unihealth Foundation.
Staff reporter Laurence Darmiento can be reached at (323) 549-5225, ext. 237, or at
[email protected]
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