Patient Safety Forum: Do State Medicaid Preferred Drug Lists Affect Patient Safety?

Abstract

Editor's Note: The Patient Safety Forum is an occasional feature of the journal in which expert discussants address questions related to medical errors and other safety issues. Benjamin Grasso, M.D., and Miles F. Shore, M.D., are guest editors of the forum. Contributing to this month's forum are Linda Elam, Ph.D., M.P.H., a senior policy analyst with the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured in Washington, D.C.; Matthew M. Murawski, R.Ph., Ph.D., associate professor of pharmacy administration at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana; Siri Childs, Pharm.D., pharmacy policy office chief for Washington Medicaid in Olympia; and Joseph W. Vanable, Jr., professor of biological sciences emeritus at Purdue University and president of the board of directors of NAMI Indiana. Dr. Grasso, who is affiliated with the Institute for Self-Directed Care in Portland, Maine, and Dr. Shore, who is with the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, invite readers to contribute questions for discussion (email, bgrasso1@maine.rr.com or miles_shore@harvard.edu).