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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- The Utah Health Department has found over the past year eight registered sex offenders in Utah were given Viagra or similar drugs.
Health Department spokesman Steve McDonald says the erectile dysfunction prescriptions were paid for by Medicaid.
McDonald said they found the eight individuals by comparing Utah's sex offender registry with Utah's Medicaid recipients.
The review found that the eight registered sex offenders filled a total of 37 prescriptions, from July 2004 to the present time.
The issue arose after New York officials announced in May that 198 rapists and other high-risk sex offenders in the state had received Medicaid-reimbursed Viagra over a five year period.
In Utah, McDonald said measures have been taken to assure Medicaid-paid erectile dysfunction prescriptions are no longer filled for sex offenders.
McDonald says the state will continue to cross check prescriptions for such drugs with the state's current sex offender registry.
(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
