US pharmacists win over AMP

The USA's Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will not publicly release current average manufacturer price (AMP) figures for drugs, its Administrator, Mark McClellan, told the National Community Pharmacists Association annual conference on national legislation and government affairs, held end-May.

The release of this data was due in July but, although it has clearly been delayed, it will come out in due course as the law requires this for the basis of reimbursment cuts for retail parmacies' Medicaid business commencing January 2007. AMP is defined as the sale from generics to wholesalers from the retail class of trade, and its publication has raised serious concerns as the data had never before been verified or used to set reimbursement

Independent pharmacists have raised concerns that the current AMP definition reflects only about 50% of the actual acquisition price of generic drugs. An AMP calculated too low, coupled with the relatively small average product cost of generics, would result in Medicaid reimbursements sharply below the pharmacy's costs, says the NCPA. Under a provision in the Deficit Reduction Act that was enacted earlier this year, the CMS was to post AMPs on July 1.