Legislation requires doctors to get state permission before prescribing psychiatric drugs for kids on Medicaid
April 1, 2009
By EMILY RAMSHAW
The Dallas Morning News
AUSTIN – The number of poor Texas children on powerful psychiatric drugs could drop dramatically under a bill lawmakers are considering to halt unwarranted prescriptions.
Rep. Sylvester Turner’s bill would prohibit doctors from prescribing anti-psychotic drugs to children younger than 11 who are covered by Medicaid unless they get special permission from the state. …
According to state data, roughly 13 percent of the 2.1 million children on Medicaid received a psychotropic drug in fiscal 2007. Nearly 190,000 of those kids were younger than 11. …
Last year, Florida health officials began requiring state approval for Medicaid recipients younger than 6. Since then, the number of antipsychotic prescriptions written for preschoolers in the state dropped by nearly 75 percent, and 200 doctors stopped prescribing to them all together.
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