Newspaper Mischaracterized County Pharmacy Changes
Contra Costa Regional Medical Center officials "have worked diligently to assure that all of the pharmacy needs of our patients are met," as the county moves to close pharmacies at county outpatient clinics, Jeff Smith, executive director at CCRMC and Health Centers, writes in a Contra Costa Times opinion piece.
Smith writes that an article and editorial published in the Times contain "some misrepresentations and inaccuracies" about copayments and access to pharmacy services. Most Medicare beneficiaries and some Medi-Cal beneficiaries are required to pay some type of copay, and some beneficiaries "have used the county system to avoid those expenditures -- essentially forcing county taxpayers to cover their copay and share of the costs," Smith writes.
According to Smith, "the stories that you have heard that make you think that 'patients ... (were) thrown into the water, without a canoe, much less a paddle,' are incorrect misrepresentations of the truth" (Smith, Contra Costa Times, 6/11).