BILL REQ. #:  H-4328.2 

Read first time 01/20/10.   Referred to Committee on Health & Human Services Appropriations.

     AN ACT Relating to pharmacy reimbursement rates; adding a new section to chapter 74.09 RCW; and creating a new section.

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

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   (1) The legislature finds that the 2009 settlement in New England Carpenters Health Benefits Fund v. First Data Bank, Inc., in which publishers of average wholesale drug prices agreed to reduce many published average wholesale drug prices, has effectively reduced medicaid reimbursement rates to Washington pharmacies because published average wholesale drug prices are a significant component of the medicaid reimbursement rate calculation.
     (2) The legislature further finds that it is in the public interest to protect the health and welfare of Washington residents by ensuring that payment rates to Washington pharmacies are sufficient to enlist enough pharmacies to ensure access to needed drugs for medicaid patients, especially in rural areas where there are fewer pharmacies.
     (3) The legislature intends to safeguard access to pharmaceuticals for medicaid patients by directing the department of social and health services to adjust pharmacy reimbursement rates so that pharmacy reimbursements are not reduced as a result of the reduction in published average wholesale prices that resulted from the legal settlement in New England Carpenters Health Benefits Fund v. First Data Bank, Inc.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2   A new section is added to chapter 74.09 RCW to read as follows:
     The department shall adjust pharmacy reimbursement rates so that pharmacy reimbursements are not reduced as a result of the reduction in published average wholesale prices that resulted from the legal settlement in New England Carpenters Health Benefits Fund v. First Data Bank, Inc.