SCRIPT Act.

New definitions were added for 'Housing unit', 'Independent pharmacy', 'Pharmacy desert', 'Rural', and 'Urban' to clarify how geographic and ownership criteria are determined for pharmacy access requirements.

The definition of 'Contract provider' was modified to clarify it refers to a pharmacy granted the right to provide prescription drugs according to insurer terms, with additional explanatory text added.

The definition of 'Copayment' was restructured and clarified to better explain the cost-sharing mechanism where insured persons pay a predetermined amount and the insurer pays the remainder.

New provisions were added regarding monetary advantages and penalties, clarifying that insurers cannot impose higher copayments or reduce reimbursement to affect a beneficiary's choice of pharmacy.

Formatting changes were made throughout the document, including reorganization of section headers, removal of draft markings, and cleanup of line numbers and committee adoption dates.

Added new prohibitions (items 3-6) preventing insurers from imposing unequal copayments, monetary advantages or penalties affecting pharmacy choice, reducing reimbursement for selected pharmacies, or requiring exclusive purchases as conditions for payment.

Removed the section allowing certain advantages in pharmacy deserts, which previously provided specific benefits for pharmacies in underserved areas.

Removed definitions for 'housing unit', 'independent pharmacy', 'pharmacy desert', 'rural', and 'urban' which previously established geographic criteria for pharmacy access areas.

Changed the bill title from 'Allow Certain Advantages in Pharmacy Deserts and Make Technical Corrections to the Related Statutes' to 'Pharmacy of Choice Modifications' and renumbered from Edition 5 to Edition 6.

Version number updated from S479-v-4 to S479-v-5 to reflect the Fifth Edition Engrossed status dated 5/7/25

Added 'Fifth Edition Engrossed 5/7/25' designation to document the bill's current legislative status

Definition numbering was reorganized from (4)-(13) to (3)-(13) with some renumbering inconsistencies remaining in the text.

Minor text cleanup and reformatting throughout the definitions section, including removal of duplicate words and correction of line breaks.

The definition of 'Independent pharmacy' was expanded from 'three or less pharmacies' to 'five or fewer pharmacies' under common ownership.

Added Commerce and Insurance Committee Substitute Adopted 4/15/25, indicating additional committee review and approval.

Minor formatting changes including page number updates and removal of blank lines.

Modified the definition of 'Health benefit plan' to reference a different statute (G.S. 58-3-167 instead of G.S. 58-50-110(11)), potentially changing which entities are covered under the bill.

The definition of 'pharmacy desert' for urban communities was changed from a 1-mile radius to a 2-mile radius without a pharmacy.

The definition of 'pharmacy desert' for rural communities was changed from a 10-mile radius to a 15-mile radius without a pharmacy.

Removed the original bill title page information including primary sponsors and committee referral details, replaced with committee substitute adoption notation.

Header formatting was updated to include proper session year, bill number, and committee referral information with dates.

Bill identifier was changed from DRS35187-MR-48A to S479-v-1 to reflect proper Senate versioning.

Minor grammatical correction changed 'beneficiar' to 'beneficiaries' and 'insured' to 'insureds' for consistency in beneficiary classification language.