State Senate President Leroy Garcia (D) announced that he has accepted a position with the Biden Administration and will be resigning in mid-February. Senate Democrats selected Sen. Steve Fenberg to be the chamber’s next president.
For more information, contact NACDS’ Mary Staples at 817-442-1155.
NACDS received an email from Pharmacy Services stating that “effective January 15, 2022, the Department of Health Care Finance (DHCF) is covering FDA-approved COVID-19 Home test kit(s) dispensed by pharmacies enrolled with DC Medicaid. Pharmacies must submit claims through the Fee-for-Service (FFS) Medicaid Pharmacy Benefit Manager to receive reimbursement from DHCF for HSCSN enrollee(s). HSCSN enrollees are eligible for test kits through the DC Medicaid Fee-For-Service program with no co-payment. Feel free to contact the DHCF Division of Clinician, Pharmacy, and Acute Provider Services:
Charlene Fairfax, Senior Pharmacist at (202) 442-9076, charlene.fairfax@dc.gov
Gidey Amare, Pharmacist at (202) 442-5952, gidey.amare@dc.gov
Jonas Terry, Pharmacist at (202) 478-1415, jonas.terry@dc.gov
Magellan (Pharmacy Benefit Manager) at 1-800-273-4962″
For more information, contact NACDS’ Jill McCormack at 717-592-8977.
As part of the Agency for Health Care Administration’s (Agency) quality initiatives, the Agency requested that each Medicaid health plan develop provider resource guides with direct service lines, escalation contacts, and after-hours instructions covering a wide range of service areas. The following service areas can be found in each plan’s resource guide:
The Agency’s goals with this initiative are to improve communication and coordination between plans and providers, and more specifically: to reduce readmissions by improving communication among health plans and providers; to improve members’ access to timely and appropriate services post-discharge; and to streamline the coordination of behavioral health services for members, especially those with substance use disorder (SUD) and opioid use disorder (OUD).
Each plan’s resource guide has been posted publicly on their respective websites, but may be easily accessed from the Florida Medicaid Health Plan Resources page on the Agency’s website. The Agency encourages providers to explore the resource guides for the health plans with which they contract and to utilize them to coordinate services for members they serve.
For more information, contact NACDS’ Leigh Knotts at 803-243-7207.
The Georgia Board of Pharmacy has just begun the process for reviving a quarterly, electronic newsletter. President of the Board, Dean Stone has appointed Chuck Page and Young Chang to lead this effort. Chuck has reached out and asked that our members provide him with the email addresses of everyone in their pharmacy operations whom they want to begin receiving these future newsletters. Please just provide this information directly to Chuck Page. His email address is chuck.page@kroger.com.
For more information, contact NACDS’ Leigh Knotts at 803-243-7207.
The Board of Pharmacy is meeting at 9 AM on February 17th in Baton Rouge. Items on the agenda of interest include legislative proposals on collaborative practice agreements, statewide protocols for patient care services and immunizations.
For more information, contact NACDS’ Mary Staples at 817-442-1155.
The Office of Pharmacy Services has issued a new bulletin applying to COVID-19 Home Test Kit Coverage and another new bulletin regarding coverage for oral COVID-19 antivirals for the Medicaid Fee-for-Service (FFS) Program. Anyone interested in directly receiving upcoming Advisories may forward his/her name, company affiliation and email address directly to Deborah.washington@maryland.gov
For more information, contact NACDS’ Jill McCormack at 717-592-8977.
The Massachusetts Board of Pharmacy has updated two policies. Policy 2022-01 dealing with loss or theft of Controlled Substances which now requires confirmed and possible losses be reported within a 7 calendar days period. The second policy change deals with USP 800 in Community Pharmacies.
For more information, please contact NACDS’ Ben Pearlman at 617-515-2603.
Legislation that would expand pharmacists’ scope of practice bill, HB 2452 by Rep. Bennie Cook (R) was referred to the House Emerging Issues Committee. Hearing date has not been set.
Also in Missouri, HB 2452 & SB (Senate Bill) 1126, legislation has been filed in both the House and Senate that proposes to modify the definition of a medication therapeutic plan by repealing language defining it by the prescription order must be specific to each patient, The bills also would re-define the practice of pharmacy to include the ordering and administering of U.S. FDA-approved or authorized vaccines to persons at least 7 years of age or the CDC-approved age, whichever is older, pursuant to rules promulgated by the Board of Pharmacy and the Board of Registration for the Healing Arts or rules promulgated under a state of emergency.
Finally in Missouri, effective February 4, 2022, an emergency rule reinstated pharmacy’s ability to use out-of-state vendors to help fill orders for drugs.
For more information, contact NACDS’ Mary Staples at 817-442-1155.
Gov. Steve Sisolak (D) ended the state’s mask mandate effective immediately, February 10, 2022.
For more information, contact NACDS’ Mary Staples at 817-442-1155.