Improvements Vetoed – Workers Comp In Florida
Workers Comp improvements vetoed in the Sunshine State. There has been quite a large amount of buzz in the Workers Compensation world in reference to Governor Crist’s veto of what looked to be a great piece of legislation for businesses in Florida. The bill was a conglomeration of numerous non-invasive cost-cutting measures for Workers Comp.
The main topic was the prepackaged drugs provided by physicians would have been banned. Sadly, there were many more aspects of the legislation that would have saved Florida millions in Workers Comp payouts over the next few years.
One of the better studies performed on prepackaged drugs was released n January 2005. The California Workers’ Compensation Institute (CWCI) released an interesting cost analysis compiled of repackaged drugs. The analysis evaluated a total 246,906 prescriptions with 30.5 percent represented by repackaged drugs and 69.5 percent comprised of pharmacy-based medications. Although repackaged drugs consisted of only 30 percent of the sample size they represented over 51 percent of the total paid amount.
The same study also included a price comparison of three common repackaged drugs with pharmacy fee schedule and on-line pharmacy costs. In each of the three examples the repackaged drug contained significantly higher costs.
Without further cost analysis of prepackaged drugs, comparing reimbursement rates with multi-state fee schedules, it is difficult to determine if these findings represent a unique observation. If nothing more, the study heightens concerns that prepackaged drugs may lead to increased pharmacy costs.
I will cover some of the other Workers Comp savings that were in the bill next time.
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