State could save $40 million a year on prescription medication for inmates under a bill overwhelmingly approved by the Assembly Monday.

SACRAMENTO – What’s not to like?

The state Assembly on Monday voted overwhelmingly in favor of a bill by Bonnie Lowenthal that will ensure multimillion-dollar cost savings in the state’s prison system.

Assembly Bill 2747, by Assemblymember Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, locks in pharmacy savings of about $40 million a year.

“We’re going to buy in bulk, use generics, and we’re going to cut the cost of providing medicine in our prisons,” Lowenthal said.

The bill requires the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to use a number of cost-saving measures initiated by the court-appointed receiver, who a federal judge placed in charge of California’s broken prison healthcare system.

“The bill will ensure that the department doesn’t slip back into the kind of wasteful processes that it used before the receiver took over,” said Lowenthal.

In the years leading up to the court-ordered takeover, pharmacy costs for the state’s prison system were rising at an alarming rate, about twice the national average of 6 to 7 percent. Under the reforms required in Lowenthal’s bill, projected increases will be significantly below the average of other states.

“It’s important that we lock in those savings,” said Lowenthal.

The measure was approved on a bipartisan vote without any opposition.

Contact: Will Shuck @ (916) 319-2054