ALBANY – The federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is now advising state officials they can deny Medicaid coverage for erectile-dysfunction drugs for convicted sex offenders.

“The Medicaid program should not be paying for erectile-dysfunction drugs for sex offenders,” a spokesman for the center under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Gary Karr, said. Notices were to go out to states yesterday, 24 hours after New York state Comptroller Alan Hevesi revealed 198 of New York’s worst sex offenders received taxpayer-paid Viagra.

“States already have the power to determine if a drug is not medically appropriate for a certain patient or certain class of patients,” Mr. Karr said. He said there was confusion over a 1998 federal directive, which apparently resulted in Medicaid-paid Viagra for sex offenders on parole and after they served their sentences.

“That’s wonderful,” said Laura Ahearn, executive director of Parents for Megan’s Law, an advocacy group named for a New Jersey girl raped and killed in 1994 by a convicted sex offender. “I think that is probably the most proactive measure they can take to ensure that individual states can legislate what their values are.”

Ms. Ahearn, with others seeking better protection for victims of sex offenses, had spent much of yesterday lobbying her state to see what could be done since Mr. Hevesi’s revelation on Sunday. She spoke with Governor Pataki’s staff who, like their counterparts in other states, thought they had little recourse from providing Medicaid-paid Viagra for sex offenders.

“There was a feeling this was not something the states could legislate, so now that we know the states have the power …we are going to lobby the states to make sure this is stopped,” she said.

“It’s great that the federal government has responded immediately and given states the power to stop providing Viagra to sex offenders,” Mr. Hevesi said. His office was tipped to the concern by a whistle-blower who noticed sex offenders were getting Viagra prescriptions, he told WROW Radio in Albany.

In a letter Sunday to HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt, Mr. Hevesi, a Democrat, requested immediate administrative action or that Mr. Leavitt draft an amendment to the Medicaid law if necessary. Audits by Mr. Hevesi’s office showed that between January 1, 2000, and March 31 of this year, 198 Level 3 sex offenders in New York received Medicaid-reimbursed Viagra after their convictions. Those included crimes against children as young as 2 years old, he said.

“The bottom line is, giving convicted sex offenders government-funded Viagra is like giving convicted murderers an assault rifle when they get out of jail,” Senator Schumer, a Brooklyn Democrat, said.

Earlier yesterday, Mr. Pataki directed the New York Parole Division to prohibit convicted sex offenders on parole from using erectile-dysfunction drugs.