Government
Coverage of impotence drugs may end
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Aug. 8, 2005
The federal government would be unable to pay for any erectile dysfunction drugs next year under a spending bill that Senate appropriators approved last month.
The House already has passed a spending bill for the Dept. of Health and Human Services that would ban Medicare and Medicaid from covering medications prescribed only to treat impotence. If the full Senate passes the HHS funding measure with the language intact, negotiators from both houses would need to reconcile the two versions.
Medicare will begin covering prescription drugs in January 2006. Medicaid pays for impotence drugs now. Lawmakers estimate that banning erectile dysfunction medication coverage for the fiscal year would save the programs more than $100 million.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2005/08/08/gvbf0808.htm.