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Medicaid Pharmacy Dispensing Fee Legislation 2009-2010 128th General Assembly

128th General Assembly
Regular Session S. B. No. 277
2009-2010

Yesterday Sen. Shannon Jones (R-Springboro) introduced legislation to address the dispensing fee cut that pharmacy suffered in the most recent budget.  SB 277 would immediately restore the Medicaid pharmacy dispensing fee to $3.70; require a study to determine future costs of dispensing Medicaid prescriptions and then require the Medicaid Department to set the dispensing fee to the level reported in the study; limit Medicaid patients to four brand name drugs per month with a physician override procedure; and require ODJFS to update Medicaid pharmacy reimbursement within 24 hours of a manufacturer increasing the price of a drug. 

Unlike other groups that ask the legislature to restore their funding without an identified funding source, the proposal we presented to Senator Jones more than adequately covers the cost of both restoring the dispensing fee and requiring daily price updates.  The savings from the four brand limit would be approximately $57 million per year.  The cost to raise the dispensing fee back up to $3.70 would be $11million per year, and the cost of daily updating of the Medicaid formulary would be $3.5 million.  That leaves the state with a surplus of at least $42.5 million annually

Here is a link to the legislation:  http://www.legislature.state.oh.us/BillText128/128_SB_277_I_Y.pdf

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