New Mexico News: Board's Tablet Splitting Policy

March 1, 2006 2:29 pm

Published in the March 2006 New Mexico Board of Pharmacy Newsletter

The New Mexico Board of Pharmacy is aware that some health care payers have established policies that deny payments of lower strength medications and require patients to take portions of tablets of higher strength formulations. The Board strongly opposes policies that deny payment for lower strengths of tablet dosage forms, or otherwise mandate splitting of tablets by patients or pharmacists. The Board feels that the health of the patient may be compromised due to physical or cognitive limitations of the patient and their ability to split tablets accurately. Stability of the medication may be affected by splitting. Splitting may produce tablets of unequal size contributing to over or under medication of a patient. These factors may contribute to patient non-compliance to therapy, which may produce elevated health care costs. The Board also recognizes that some medications are designed by manufacturers to be split simply and easily, without the use of tools, knives, or razor blades. Current regulations require that a pharmacist contact the prescriber if there are any changes to be made to the prescription. The Board may, at some future date, enact regulations specifically prohibiting this practice.