The Legislature adjourned on August 31. Numerous bills of interest to chain pharmacy have been sent to Gov. Jerry Brown (D) who has until Sunday, September 30 to sign into law, veto, or allow them to become law without his signature.
For more information, contact NACDS’ Mary Staples at 817-442-1155.
Gov. Bruce Rauner (R) signed into law the following legislation:
For more information, contact NACDS’ Joel Kurzman at 847-905-0555.
The Division of Medicaid has placed new requirements on the MississippiCAN Coordinated Care Organizations that will take effect Monday, October 1. The purpose of these requirements is to enable pharmacy providers to identify and separate PBM lines of business in their front-end claims processing systems.
For more information, contact NACDS’ Leigh Knotts at 803-243-7207.
NACDS recently learned that beginning August 7, the Department of Human Services (DHS) began paying pharmacies an increased professional dispensing fee (PDF) of $10.00 for Medicaid fee-for-service pharmacy claims. The increased PDF was approved by CMS in late July. Last summer, DHS filed a SPA for NADAC + $7.00 PDF that NACDS opposed. In addition to filing comments with CMS and DHS expressing concerns with the SPA, NACDS met with Medicaid staff and supported the efforts of in-state partners with legislators to oppose the $7.00 PDF.
For more information, contact NACDS’ Jill McCormack at 717-592-8977.
NACDS and five in-state partners submitted a letter to the Health and Human Services Commission’s Vendor Drug Program Medicaid Director encouraging open formulary access to the flu vaccine for patients ages 7 years and older so flu vaccines may be administered by a pharmacist and billed to the prescription benefit, without going through the Vaccines for Children (VFC) program. In our letter, we cited data that shows that open formulary access could improve patient access and save Texas money by eliminating the barriers posed by VFC to pharmacy participation.
For more information, contact NACDS’ Mary Staples at 817-442-1155.
The Department of Justice which operates the prescription drug monitoring program called CURES is hosting a webinar on Tuesday, August 28 to educate approved healthcare practitioners and pharmacists on how to utilize a new technology system to access information in the CURES database. Registration is available online.
For more information, contact NACDS’ Mary Staples at 817-442-1155.
The Board of Pharmacy is seeking individuals to volunteer to serve on two short-term task forces to examine certain rules and draft amendments. The rules under review are:
Those interested should submit a cover letter indicating your interest in a particular rule and resume to Yukon Morford by Monday, August 20. The Board will review the applicants and select the task force members at its Thursday, September 20 meeting.
For more information, contact NACDS’ Mary Staples at 817-442-1155.
Gov. Charlie Baker (R) signed into law HB 4742 (formerly HB 4866), requiring that on or after Wednesday, January 1, 2020, prescriptions for Schedule II through VI controlled substances must be issued via an electronic prescription from the prescriber to a pharmacy. The law also creates a statewide standing order for the dispensing of naloxone and permits pharmacists to bill the insurer for the person requesting an opioid antagonist dispensed through the standing order. Additionally, pharmacists are not required to determine the identity of the ultimate user and the customer may pay cash for the prescription, if they prefer.
For more information, please contact NACDS’ Ben Pearlman at 617-515-2603.
The Board of Pharmacy announced that former Board Member Dorothy Gourley, D.Ph. will serve as interim executive director while the Board conducts a search for a new executive director.
For more information, contact NACDS’ Mary Staples at 817-442-1155.