AP NewsBreak: Sex offenders got Viagra drugs from state

<p>Georgia's Medicaid program shelled out taxpayer money to provide erectile dysfunction drugs like Viagra to three sex offenders during the last three months, the state acknowledged Thursday.</p><p>The prescriptions won't be renewed, and new steps will be taken to ensure that other sex offenders aren't permitted to get that class of drugs, said the state Department of Community Health, which oversees the state's Medicaid program.</p><p>The agency searched its records this week following inquiries by The Associated Press after it was discovered that more than 400 convicted sex offenders in New York and Florida were reimbursed for the erectile dysfunction drug Viagra.</p><p>Shortly after that revelation, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services began notifying state Medicaid agencies they are not required to offer erectile dysfunction drugs to sex offenders. Medicaid is a joint state-federal program that provides health care coverage for the poor.</p><p>Among those especially interested in the issue is Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, whose budget problems over the last three years have been worsened by rising health care costs.</p><p>"The governor certainly does not believe taxpayers should be footing the bill for Viagra for sex offenders," said spokeswoman Heather Hedrick. "He's not sure why taxpayers are funding it for anybody. He has personally asked DCH to get to the bottom of this situation in Georgia."</p><p>The agency said it paid for 1,645 erectile dysfunction prescriptions for 866 individuals over the last three months.</p><p>At the time, it did not screen out those who had been convicted of sex crimes, but did require a prior approval process under which prescribing physicians had to contact the state's pharmacy benefits manager and submit documentation of the need for the medication.</p><p>Now, an additional step will be added. "They'll just add to that a check that when this drug is prescribed, they will also check the sex registry," said Tim Burgess, a commissioner with the Department of Community Health.</p><p>Agency spokeswoman Julie Kerlin said Georgia Medicaid does not pay for erectile dysfunction medicine unless the prescribing doctor documents that it is medically necessary because of an underlying cause such as coronary artery disease, spinal cord injury and diabetes.</p><p>Generally, prescriptions are limited to three pills a month, she said.</p><p>Georgia has paid for erectile dysfunction drugs since 1998 because that's what the federal Medicaid agency told it and other states to do, Burgess said.</p><p>With fresh national attention to the issue, "My guess is this is going to lead us into a policy discussion maybe nationally about whether this should be covered," he said.</p><p>Kerlin said the agency was able to find the three sex offenders on the list by comparing its database against the sex offender registry kept by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.</p><p>The three filled a total of five prescriptions over the 90 days at a cost to the taxpayers of $1,259.86.</p><p>The agency is still working on numbers to tell the governor how much it cost over the last 90 days to fill all erectile dysfunction prescriptions.</p><p>___</p><p>Dick Pettys has covered Georgia government and politics since 1970</p>

http://accesswdun.com/article/2005/5/145228