State pharmacy benefits manager; contractual provisions, report.
Summary
State pharmacy benefits manager; contractual provisions; report. Requires the Department of Medical Assistance Services' contract with the state pharmacy benefits manager to (i) require that that ingredient-cost reimbursement is based on the national average drug acquisition cost, or if unavailable, the wholesale acquisition cost minus a discount set by the Department, plus a professional dispensing fee, determined by the Department; (ii) require real-time or near real-time transparency in drug costs, rebates collected and paid, dispensing fees paid, administrative fees, and all other charges, fees, costs, and holdbacks, claim denials appeals, and network participation; (iii) prohibit the state pharmacy benefits manager from steering Medicaid recipients to affiliated pharmacies through differential cost-sharing, restrictive network design, or the mandatory use of a mail order pharmacy provider; (iv) require the state pharmacy benefits manager to (a) meet network adequacy standards established by the Department; (b) allow any willing pharmacy to participate in the pharmacy network; (c) verify that all contracted pharmacies are actively accepting Medicaid recipients; (d) submit annual reports containing certain information; (e) disclose to the Department pricing and maximum acquisition cost methodologies; and (f) allow invoice-based or national average drug acquisition cost-based appeals and require an adjustment of rates network-wide when an appeal is upheld; and (v) include enforcement mechanisms and monetary penalties for noncompliance. Additionally, the bill requires Department to annually calculate the savings generated by the use of the state pharmacy benefits manager and to annually increase its dispensing fee by the amount of such savings. The bill requires the Department to annually (1) publish and make available on its website its annual and total savings achieved, the annual and total amount applied to dispensing fees increases, and the updated dispensing fees and (2) report to the General Assembly on the state pharmacy benefits manager's compliance, national average drug acquisition cost compliance, pharmacy reimbursement trends, network adequacy compliance, and dispensing fee sufficiency.
Bill status
in committee
1 of 4 stages cleared
Introduction
Jan 2026
Committee Review
Floor Vote
Governor
Introduced Jan 14, 2026
Last action Feb 11, 2026
Floor votes
How they voted
No floor votes recorded yet.
Full legislative history
Actions timeline
Total actions
6
Key actions
1
Committee
3
Feb 2, 2026
Upper · Passed
Reported from Commerce and Labor and rereferred to Finance and Appropriations (11-Y 1-N)
upper
Jan 29, 2026
Committee
Rereferred from Education and Health to Commerce and Labor (13-Y 0-N)
upper
Jan 14, 2026
Committee
Referred to Committee on Education and Health
upper
1 primary · 0 co-sponsors
Sponsors
Role
Legislator
Party
State
District
P
Aaron Rouse
DDemocratic
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