The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has decided not to appeal a preliminary injunction that has blocked it from implementing the average manufacturer price rule for Medicaid generic drug reimbursement. In a December hearing, Judge Royce Lamberth granted the injunction after concluding that the case filed by the National Community Pharmacists Association and the National Association of Chain Drug Stores was likely to succeed and that "implementation of this scheme would, in fact, put [pharmacies] out of business." The rule was set to go into effect in January. In the suit, NACDS and NCPA charged that the rule threatened independent pharmacies by sharply reducing reimbursement and that CMS had contradicted numerous aspects of the Social Security Act, including its definition of AMP. CMS now has until March 31 to produce administrative documents on how it developed the rule.

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