Patients have 60 days to try reimbursable medications, the state says, but can switch back if they don't work.
By Times Staff Writer
Published July 7, 2005
Medicaid patients taking certain psychiatric drugs will have two months to change prescriptions or get approval for the assistance program to keep paying for them.
Patients taking the antipsychotics Zyprexa or Symbyax will have 60 days to make the switch, starting Monday, Alan Levine, secretary of the Agency for Health Care Administration, said on Wednesday.
About 16,000 Florida Medicaid patients take Zyprexa, Levine said.
A new law requires doctors to prescribe psychiatric drugs to Medicaid patients from an approved list first. Zyprexa, Symbyax and some antidepressants including Cymbalta, Effexor XR, Prozac Weekly or Sarafem are not on that list.
Advocates for the mentally ill say the new policy will force stable patients from their medications, and they may end up hospitalized, or worse.
State officials say patients can apply to get other drugs if the approved drugs don't work for them. "People who need the drug will be able to get the drug they need," Levine said.
A leading drug company, Eli Lilly & Co., maker of Zyprexa, has been especially critical of the change. Levine has criticized Lilly for refusing to negotiate a lower price on its drugs with the state.
