Senate Bill 341 is an attempt to give greater prescription authority to MCOs by granting the use of "step therapy" in which a prescription regimen can be ordered by the MCO that requires a client to start with lower-priced drugs, only moving up when it is demonstrated that the lower-priced drug is not working.
State officials have said:
- Mental health drugs are exempt from this.
- This will not effect prescriptions already in place for persons served.
- Psychotropics used for seizure controls will be treated as mental health drugs.
However, none of these promises are in the bill, and if the bill is passed as is, we would have to rely on rules and regulations, and then on the operational practices of the MCOs to assure these promises will be kept.
The senate convenes at 2:30 p.m. today to vote on this bill.
Read the bill here.
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