Pennsylvania to Introduce Medicaid PDL on January 1

Starting on January 1, Pennsylvania will employ a preferred drug list for its Medicaid program – a list that applies to both fee-for-service and managed care patients. And as many as 150,000 of the state’s 2.8 million Medicaid beneficiaries may find themselves facing changes in their prescription drugs. The purpose of the PDL is to save money – an estimated $85 million a year, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, which administers the state's Medicaid program. While physicians may submit requests to the state for exemptions for specific patients for specific purposes, those exemptions may be relatively uncommon:  [...]