APNewsBreak: Vt. changes course, will not try to collect federal drug rebates from recipients

APNewsBreak: Vt. backs off on federal drug rebates

MONTPELIER, Vt. — The state of Vermont is abandoning plans to try to collect $250 federal rebates going to some Medicare beneficiaries for prescription drug costs, in the face of opposition from the Obama administration and its own congressional delegation.

As recently as Monday morning, a top aide to Gov. Jim Douglas was saying the state would go ahead with plans to ask recipients of checks designed to address the so-called Medicare prescription drug “doughnut hole” to turn the money over to the state.

Vermont officials had reasoned that the affected seniors hadn’t had to pay out of pocket for drugs, because a supplemental state aid program was paying the cost for them.

But now, Douglas aide Heidi Tringe says the state is dropping that stance.