States with the highest number of meth incidents (as of September 2014):
Indiana - 1,121 incidents
Tennessee - 813 incidents
Missouri - 800 incidents
Ohio - 747 incidents
Michigan - 609 incidents
Source: Missouri State Highway Patrol
The attempt of Indiana legislators to make ephedrine and pseudoephedrine available only by prescription could cost Indiana millions of dollars on healthcare, a new Ball State study says.
Pseudoephedrine is a common ingredient in common cold and allergy medicines and in methamphetamine.
As of September 2014, Indiana was leading the country in the number of meth incidents in 2014 with 1,121 incidents, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol. Tennessee was the second highest with 813 incidents.
In 2014, Delaware County had the highest number of incidents in Indiana in 2014, with 148, according to in.gov. Kosciusko was the second highest with 58.
Michael Hicks, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research, and Srikant Devaraj, a senior research associate and project manager, and two of the authors of the study, estimated the impact of making pseudoephedrine a prescription-only drug.
“Typically for any policy analysis, it’s always feasible to look into what the costs and benefits are – that applies to any legislation or public policy,” Devaraj said. “Our goal was to look at what the cost was for this.”
Senate Bill 445 would require drugs that contain ephedrine and pseudoephedrine to be available only by prescription if it is passed, according to the Indiana General Assembly.
The Ball State study estimated there would be a $5.8 million increase in respiratory drug payments to people using Medicaid and a 106 percent increase in antihistamine drug payments.
Indiana would have to spend $1.8 million more annually for Medicaid spending, and because prescription drugs don’t have a sales tax placed on them, they would loose $900,000 to $1.3 million in sales tax per year.
For households, the study estimated out of pocket costs would be from $15.9 million to $61.2 million per year.
"Our study suggests that the cost exceeds the benefits, at this point,” Hicks said. “Unless there’s some benefit we haven’t foreseen, and we don’t think that’s the case, it would seem that this legislation would have costs without benefits.”
In a different study done in Oregon, they found no effect on the number lab seizures by making pseudoephedrine prescription-only. However, in Mississippi, they found the numbers to be declining.
To come up with the cost estimations, Hicks said they examined data on changes to Medicaid and doctors visits in locations that had already adopted the prescription only rule, like Oregon and Mississippi, then applied a simulation to that data to come up with the cost estimation.
Both Hicks and Devaraj said the benefits of this bill, if there are any in Indiana, don’t measure up to the costs of it.
“I’m confident that this will be a part of the debate going on, not only for the legislator, but if it passes, for the governor's office before they sign it,” Hicks said.
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