Planned Parenthood of Northern New England is seeking $65,000 from the Legislature in the current budget year to help make up for money it’s losing through prescription drug rules.
The organization, which has 12 health clinics across Vermont, says it has closed five of those clinics for one day per week in response to budget pressures over the past several years related to drug pricing.
Planned Parenthood follows rules through 340b, a federal program designed to help low-income people afford prescription drugs. Most health care providers in the state follow a standard form of drug pricing through Vermont Medicaid.
Meagan Gallagher, the president and chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, said the financial pressures from the 340b rules have mounted since 2010, when the Department of Vermont Health Access first implemented its policies under 340b.
While the program is designed to help providers get cheap prescription drugs to treat low-income patients, Gallagher said the policies dating back to 2010 caused Planned Parenthood to suffer a $275,000 annual operating loss between that year and 2014. Since then it continues to have a $190,000 annual operating loss, she said.
On top of that, Gallagher said, Planned Parenthood hasn’t benefited from a birth control law passed last year that increased income for many other providers. The bill was intended to encourage providers to make intrauterine devices and contraceptive implants available on the same day patients request them — something Planned Parenthood has been doing for years — by making it more profitable.
Michael Costa, the deputy commissioner of the Department of Vermont Health Access, told the Senate Health and Welfare Committee on Wednesday that the state increased how much Vermont Medicaid pays some providers for the birth control products, but not for the service of inserting them.
Because Planned Parenthood is part of the 340b program rather than using standard Vermont Medicaid pricing, it didn’t receive the full boost in payments for the products.
“They implemented the value-based payment in different ways, and Planned Parenthood ended up getting less than other providers,” Gallagher said. The $65,000 being sought in the annual Budget Adjustment Act “is the difference between a day of service or not, at one clinic, so we are advocating on every front to increase access wherever we can.”
Costa, the former deputy director of health care reform under Gov. Peter Shumlin, said he is still new in the job but the department can review its policy to see if it can create parity for all providers.
“The commitment we can make is to continue to talk to folks and try to see what options we could have in reimbursing these devices or services and evaluate them and see if this is really the best choice,” Costa said.
Sen. Claire Ayer, D-Addison, the chair of the Health and Welfare Committee, said the Senate Appropriations Committee asked her panel to look into the issue to see if Planned Parenthood’s $65,000 request should be granted.
“I think we should make them whole, do what we said we were going to do,” Ayer said.
She said the committee members, all Democrats, still need to take a vote.
