BILL REQ. #:  S-3838.2 

Read first time 01/22/14.   Referred to Committee on Health Care .

     AN ACT Relating to medication synchronization and dispensing fee standardization; and adding a new section to chapter 48.44 RCW.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   A new section is added to chapter 48.44 RCW to read as follows:
     (1) An individual or group health insurance policy providing prescription drug coverage in the state must permit and apply a prorated daily cost-sharing rate to prescriptions that are dispensed by a network pharmacy for less than a thirty-day supply if the prescriber or pharmacist indicates the fill or refill could be in the best interest of the patient and is for the purpose of synchronizing the patient's chronic medications.
     (2) No individual or group health insurance policy providing prescription drug coverage may deny coverage for the dispensing of any drug prescribed for the treatment of a chronic illness that is made in accordance with a plan among the insured, a practitioner, and a pharmacist to synchronize the refilling of multiple prescriptions for the insured.
     (3) No individual or group health insurance policy providing prescription drug coverage may use payment structures incorporating prorated dispensing fees determined by calculation of the days' supply of medication dispensed. Dispensing fees must be determined exclusively on the total number of prescriptions dispensed.