In its first meeting of 2019, the House Insurance Committee favorably reported HB 195, legislation facilitating medication synchronization and requiring insurers to allow for prorated copays and full dispensing fees for partial fills. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Eric R. Nelson (R) and supported by the Pennsylvania Association of Chain Drug Stores, now goes to the full House for consideration.
For more information, contact NACDS’ Jill McCormack at 717-592-8977.
The Health and Human Services Department published the quarterly Medicaid preferred specialty drug list.
Also in Texas…HB 577/SB 420, legislation that pharmacies support that would eliminate the requirement to check the prescription monitoring program when refilling certain controlled substances prescriptions, were introduced at the request of NACDS by Rep. Senfronia Thompson (D) and Sen. Dawn Buckingham (R).
For more information, contact NACDS’ Mary Staples at 817-442-1155.
The Medicaid Pharmacy Program announced, effective Monday, January 28, Kapyay® ER will no longer be preferred over its generic equivalent. The current Preferred Drug List (PDL) is available on the website.
Also in Maryland…The Medicaid Pharmacy Program announced, effective Friday, February 15, Reyataz® capsules will no longer be preferred over its generic equivalent.
For more information, contact NACDS’ Jill McCormack at 717-592-8977.
This week, Gov. Charlie Baker (R) released his Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 budget request which includes a proposal for a 15 percent tax on opioid manufacturers on gross receipts from the sale of opioid products. This tax income would be used to pay for the $48 million proposed increase for treatment and other services. The total amount budgeted for these services will be $266 million. In addition, the Governor’s budget contains a provision which would give MassHealth the ability to negotiate directly with drug manufacturers over price and use a public rate-setting process for the high-cost prescription drugs similar to how rates for other Medicaid services are set.
For more information, please contact NACDS’ Ben Pearlman at 617-515-2603.
In April 2017, the Medicaid fee-for-service pharmacy reimbursement was adjusted to NADAC plus a $10.02 professional dispensing fee. This month, the Department of Health will start the process to retroactively adjust pharmacy claims that were adjudicated effective April 1, 2017 through February 21, 2018. The Department expects this repricing to take place over the course of several months and anticipates that it will be completed by the end of December 2019. Janet Elkind, pharmacy director for Medicaid, has stated that 77 percent of pharmacies will see an increase, six percent will see no change, and 16 percent see a reduction during this readjustment period.
New York…Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) recently released his budget. Additionally, 30-day budget amendments will be released on Thursday, February 14. Among the various provisions are a series of PBM proposals and a prohibition on selling any tobacco products by pharmacies. The legislature will debate the budget and complete the budget process by Monday, April 1.
For more information, please contact NACDS’ Ben Pearlman at 617-515-2603.
This week, hearings were held for HB 2559, Board of Pharmacy legislation, that provides for certain exemptions from the requirement, effective Wednesday, July 1, 2020, that any prescription for a controlled substance that contains an opioid be issued as an electronic prescription.
For more information, contact NACDS’ Jill McCormack at 717-592-8977.
SF 47 has passed the Senate with only two dissenting votes and has advanced to the House for consideration. The bill, among other things, requires e-prescribing of all controlled substances effective Friday, January 1, 2021.
For more information, contact NACDS’ Sandra Guckian at 703-774-4801.
DC Health has established a policy statement to allow pharmacists to dispense naloxone without a prescription pursuant to a standing order. The policy will allow national pharmacy organizations (NPOs) to use their own training programs and standing orders to dispense naloxone to DC residents. The NPO standing order must be signed by a DC-licensed physician. The training program must meet the requirements outlined in the policy statement. Pharmacies that are not members of an NPO can dispense naloxone if the pharmacists have completed DC Health’s naloxone training program and have signed the DC Health standing order. The DC Health training program can be found on the DCRx website. If your pharmacy would like to complete the DC Health standing order, email supervisory pharmacist Dr Justin Ortique. For more information, please visit www.dchealth.dc.gov/bop.
Several rule changes from the Iowa Board of Pharmacy will take effect on Wednesday, January 23, including Dispensing and electronic transfer of prescriptions by pharmacy technicians, Board membership and responsibilities, Wholesale distributor licenses, Limited distributor licenses, and Third-party logistics provider licenses. Additional information on these rules and others can be found on the Iowa legislature’s rule tracking website.
For more information, contact NACDS’ Joel Kurzman at 847-905-0555.