Kentucky Medicaid’s adoption of a stop-gap measure included in Section 5 subsection 1(a) of SB50 prohibits managed care contractors from reducing pharmacy dispensing fees through the end of this year. While it is likely that the Medicaid contract extension issued July 1, 2020, will include the contract language detailed above, documentation of this cannot be provided at this time as these contract extensions are not publicly available. Regardless of the availability of this language, however, at the very least the stop-gap measure prohibits the reduction of dispensing fees through the end of this year. Additionally, in 2018, the General Assembly enacted a biennial budget that included budget language stated for fiscal year 2020, which will provide for an additional $2 dispensing fee to be added to the existing contracted dispensing fee to retail pharmacies. NACDS supported state advocates’ efforts to adopt SB 50 and thanks the Kentucky Retail Federation for sharing their analysis of the issue with us.
For more information, contact NACDS’ Jill McCormack at 717-592-8977.