Pharmacists would get their bills paid–why? George Ryan was at one time a pharmacist.
* The average member responding to the survey is owed over $181,000 in back Medicaid reimbursements from the state. Some independent pharmacies are owed as much as $1.8 million. According to an accompanying article in the Belleville News-Democrat, about 20 percent are owed between $50,000 and $99,000, and another 28 percent are owed between $100,000 and $199,000.
* The average waiting period for state payment is now 110 days – about four months. A year ago, it was 56 days.
The pharmacists say they are being paid much more slowly than hospitals and nursing homes, which have more political pull in Springfield. They don’t expect to be paid again until the end of August for expenses incurred through June.
The state borrowed $750 million to pay off its backlog of Medicaid bills, which triggered matching federal money. But that still left the state $500 million short of paying off its entire backlog, and, as it turned out, the vast majority of that $500 million was owed to pharmacists.
That hurts small businesses especially and such a practice is wrong.