New York isn’t the first state to suggest legislation that affects pharmaceutical agencies. In fact, nine other states have already enacted regulation. Overall, Governor Patterson argues that the proposed law “will benefit affected person care and reduce costs in the Medicaid application, as more expensive drugs aren’t prescribed for the inaccurate reasons. ” Nevertheless, Jan Faiks, a pharmaceutical company vice president argues that the move is senseless since the industry already has a voluntary code of conduct.
However, as Lisa Ullman, the assistant guidance to the governor counters, the code of conduct is voluntary and never all pharmaceutical businesses have followed the code. Most importantly, there are no enforcement criteria. Under Patterson’s concept, drug makers that violate the law would pay among $15,000 and $250,000 per violation and health care experts who broke the law would pay $5,000 to $10,000 per violation. The New York Department of Health would be responsible for imposing the law, counting on whistleblowers to report pharmaceutical abuses. While Patterson and his management don’t estimate much in extra revenue from slicing Medicaid payments for prescribed drugs, they do want New Yorkers to be safe and to understand that they’re being prescribed medications for the right purposes.