Prescription trial proposal rejected

Chalk up another win for big drug companies, the head of the state's health department said Tuesday after legislative leaders decided again not to let the department conduct an "experimental trial" of a preferred prescription list aimed at saving the state and patients money.

"We lost out 100 percent to the drug lobby," said Dr. David Sundwall after the Executive Appropriations Committee, in a close vote, decided not to allow Sundwall to run the test program.

"I don't see anything different" since the Legislature refused two years ago to allow the health department to try a preferred drug list (PDL), Senate President John Valentine, R-Orem, said in making the motion to deny Sundwall's request. The department proposed designated drugs as preferred as a way to stem spiraling prescription costs for poor, disabled and elderly patients in the Medicaid and Medicare insurance programs.

"Our attorneys tell us we could do this (test program) anyway," a clearly disappointed Sundwall said after the meeting. "But I don't think (the program) is worth it for the governor and I to stand against the Legislature this year."

The vote came after several public hearings and more than an hour of testimony Tuesday afternoon. Several groups, including the pharmaceutical association lobby, said PDLs likely wouldn't save the state any money, and in fact could cost the state money by not allowing poor, sick, elderly people to get the drugs they need in a timely manner.

But Sen. Ed Mayne, D-West Valley, said in his labor union work he's seen all kinds of private firms that have insurance coverage with PDLs, and they save both patients and the firms cash. "We've been nuked" by anti-PDL testimony, Mayne said, noting that much of it was irrelevant because Sundwall's test program only deals with two kinds of drugs: cholesterol-lowering drugs and acid reflux prescriptions.

Sundwall said the pilot plan was to determine if specifying prescribed brands in those two drug classifications actually saved the $4 million to $5 million annually the department estimates it would.

Valentine said he preferred to let other states experiment with PDLs. "Let's get a little water under the bridge and then revisit this issue." Drug firms and their lobbyists — some of the most powerful on Utah's Capitol Hill — donate tens of thousands of dollars a year to legislative campaigns. It's a lobby that Sundwall said is just too tough.

Tuesday's vote shows that the pharmaceutical firms "will do anything to maximize profits in the state of Utah, period," said Sundwall.

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