HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 2132        FILED ON: 1/14/2009

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 2153

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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In the Year Two Thousand Nine

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An Act to require health care entities to participate in the 340B prescription drug discount program..

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
 

SECTION 1.  Notwithstanding the provisions of any general or specific law to the contrary, the Executive Office of Health and Human Services shall require that, except as provided in section 3, all programs, clinics, hospitals and other health-related centers and entities that are eligible under Section 340B of the federal Public Health Service Act, shall participate in the Section 340B federal prescription drug price discount program. 

 SECTION 2.   (a) An entity eligible to participate in the 340B prescription drug discount program may contract with a pharmacy to provide pharmacy services to that eligible entity, as defined in Section 256b of Title 42 of the United States Code, including dispensing preferentially priced drugs obtained pursuant to Section 256b of Title 42 of the United States Code.  Contracts between those eligible entities and pharmacies shall comply with guidelines published by the Health Resources and Services Administration and shall be available for inspection by board staff during normal business hours.

(b)    Drugs purchased pursuant to Section 256b of Title 42 of the United States Code and received by a pharmacy shall be segregated from the pharmacy’s other drug stock by either physical or electronic means.  All records of acquisition and disposition of these drugs shall be readily retrievable in a form separate from the pharmacy’s other records.

(c)     Drugs obtained by a pharmacy to be dispenses to patients of an eligible entity pursuant to Section 256b of Title 42 of the United States Code that cannot be distributed because of a changes in circumstances for the eligible entity or the pharmacy shall be returned to the distributor from which they were obtained.  For the purposed of this section, a change in circumstances included, but is not limited to, the termination or expiration of the contract between the pharmacy and the eligible entity, the closure of a pharmacy, disciplinary action against the pharmacy, or closure of the eligible entity.

 SECTION 3.  If an eligible entity described in section 1 above can demonstrate to the satisfaction of the Executive Office of Health and Human Services that the prescription drug discount it receives other than through the Section 340B program results in greater savings to the state, the entity may be granted an exception to the requirements of this section.