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State ends Viagra coverage

The state imposed the ban after discovering that more than 200 sex offenders had received the sexual enhancement drug.

By STEVE BOUSQUET
Published May 24, 2005

TALLAHASSEE - The state on Tuesday stopped coverage of Viagra and similar drugs for 2-million Medicaid recipients after disclosures that more than 200 sex offenders got the sexual enhancement drug through the government health program.

"I don't think the Medicaid budget ought to be used for funding any of this for anybody," said Gov. Jeb Bush, has long opposed Medicaid coverage of drugs for erectile dysfunction.

Bush's Medicaid director, Alan Levine, imposed the ban a day after Attorney General Charlie Crist prompted the state to check its records.

The state's ban applies to anyone covered by Medicaid, a state-federal health care program for the poor and elderly.

"The vast difference between lifestyle enhancement and treating the serious health conditions of the Medicaid population underscores the true purpose of the program," said Levine said in a statement. "Florida's Medicaid program will now discontinue coverage of lifestyle enhancing drugs for sexual performance for all participants."

Levine said Social Security numbers of known sex offenders would be forwarded to a company that processes claims for payment under Medicaid. A pharmacist would be alerted that a client was seeking a benefit not covered by Medicaid.

The only exception, Levine said, is for a small number of Medicaid participants, mostly women, who use Viagra to treat primary pulmonary hypertension.

The state acted after the federal Medicaid agency issued a letter reminding states that they already have the authority to deny Viagra to a sex offender under laws that prohibit "fraud, abuse, gross overuse of inappropriate or medically unnecessary care."

Florida spent $4.1-million last year for Medicaid prescriptions for Viagra and four other "lifestyle enhancing" medications, including Levitra, Cialis, Caverject and Muse, the state said. Most of the 139,000 claims were for Viagra.

Jack Cox, a spokesman for Pfizer, Viagra's maker, said the company supports denying its product to sex offenders. But Cox said the wider ban could deny needed coverage to some Medicaid recipients with diabetes, multiple sclerosis or prostate cancer. Such illnesses, Cox said, can lead to erectile dysfunction.

"This is an appropriate medical treatment for many Floridians," Cox said. "Low-income Floridians shouldn't have a different standard of care."

The Florida ban comes at a time of mounting public anxiety over recent cases in which sexual offenders are accused of abducting and murdering young girls in Citrus and Hillsborough counties.

A newly enhanced state website allows people to find registered sex offenders living 1 to 5 miles of an address and locate them on a map. The website has had a dramatic surge in traffic, the attorney general's office said.

Crist, a candidate for governor who has promoted the website and demanded stronger sanctions against sex offenders, said he raised questions about Viagra prescriptions after seeing a report on CNN Monday. The report said New York State's Medicaid program paid for Viagra prescriptions for some sex offenders.

"When I first heard about it I thought it was a joke," Crist said. "It's a bad joke. It's not funny. It's lunacy. It's ridiculous."

Crist directed his chief of staff, George LeMieux, to contact Levine's Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA), which runs Florida's $15-billion Medicaid program.

The attorney general then revealed publicly that Florida spent $93,000 over the past four years to provide Viagra prescriptions to 218 sex offenders.

Bush wanted to eliminate Medicaid coverage for Viagra and similar drugs, but legislators refused. Instead, they voted last year to limit the number of such prescriptions to one a month.

Levine said he could not explain why AHCA was unable to match the state's list of known sex offenders with taxpayer-funded Viagra prescriptions.

"I'm at a loss. I'm astounded that the system didn't catch it," Levine said. "The most important thing we can do is fix it, quickly."

[Last modified May 24, 2005, 18:56:19]