Medicaid Drug Rebate Program

The Medicaid Drug Debate Program requires that drug manufacturers have a national rebate agreement with the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in order for their state to receive Federal Medicaid coverage of their products. There are 550 pharmaceutics companies that participate in the Medicaid Drug Debate Program and 49 states in addition to the District of Columbia supply drugs under the Medicaid Drug Debate Program. In order for manufacturers to be eligible for Medicaid coverage a rebate agreement must be signed with CMS. Section 606 of the Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP Balanced Budget Refinement Act of 1999 (BBRA) amended Section 1927(a)(1) allowing states to have the option of different rebate effective dates. This section states that agreements to the debate program that have been entered on or after November 29, 1999 may go into effect that day, states option, any date after up to the first day of the quarter.