PA Giving Millions To Industry While Depriving Kids Of Needed Meds

New Pa. law requires approval for anti-psychotic prescriptions for youths

Written by George Osgood, Correspondent

Elmira Star Gazette

Martha, of Elkland, Pa., is a 15-year-old eighth-grader who started school two years late and carries a nearly unbearable burden. During cancer surgery at age 5, oxygen deprivation damaged her brain.

“She has paranoid schizophrenia,” her mother said. “She has ADHD, and she’s got mild mental retardation. She has an anxiety disorder.

“If she doesn’t get her meds, she goes into these paranoid schizophrenic episodes,” her mother said. “She swears she sees people and hears people who aren’t there. And she sees them doing her harm. It’s a very ugly situation.

“There’s a risk of injury and being hospitalized,” she said. “There’s a very great risk. And she needs her meds to be able to function at any reasonable kind of level.”

Martha was off her medications for six weeks when her prescribing psychiatrist moved to another part of the state. Pennsylvania Medical Assistance regulations did not allow her primary-care doctor to prescribe the medications she needed so much.

Despondent and desperately disturbed, Martha attempted suicide. She survived. And finally she got the medication she needed.

Regulations adopted by the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare’s Drug Utilization Review Board earlier this year, however, have made it more difficult for patients under age 18 who receive Medical Assistance from the state to get state-paid anti-psychotic medications. 

Patients wait weeks/months for administrative approval for meds. Read the entire article...