The Ventura County Grand Jury has called for independent oversight to make sure Ventura County Medical Center complies with federal rules for a discounted drug program.
The Ventura-based hospital and other healthcare facilities serving needy patients buy the drugs at significant discounts. Medicare and private insurers reimburse the institutions at higher rates, allowing the providers to keep the difference and pay for expanded patient services, officials said.
But recent federal audits showed VCMC and other providers had violated rules for the 340B program, resulting in repayments to the drug companies.
In a 2015 audit, the medical center was faulted for issues related to purchasing rules, dispensing of the outpatient drugs to ineligible patients and inventory control. Drug manufacturers may also have issued discounts both to VCMC and the Medi-Cal insurance program for low-income and disabled patients, resulting in duplicate discounts, county officials said.
The grand jury said total duplicative discounts exceeded $3 million, a figure VCMC Pharmacy Director Jason Arimura says is actually no higher than $2.1 million. But he agreed with the grand jury’s recommendation that a knowledgeable outside specialist shoud be brought in to help supervise VCMC’s internal corrections plan.
County officials had already decided to do that before the grand jury’s report was issued in late April, he said.
“I think it’s reasonable,” he said. “We are in the process of seeing what vendors are out there to provide those services.”
The debt has been a moving target over the years. Arimura said the liability was originally estimated at close to $15 million to $19 million, based on all drugs purchased through the program. Negotiations with drug makers, analysis by consultants and repayment of $861,000 have reduced the outstanding amount to about $1.4 million, he said.
May 29, 2018
Ventura County Star
By Kathleen Wilson
No comments:
Post a Comment