HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 4916        FILED ON: 7/8/2016

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 4502

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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In the One Hundred and Eighty-Ninth General Court
(2015-2016)

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An Act relative to the task force on health insurance payer practices for certain prescription medications.

Whereas, The deferred operation of this act would tend to defeat its purpose, which is to provide for the task force on health insurance payer practices for certain prescription medications, therefore it is hereby declared to be an emergency law, necessary for the immediate preservation of the public convenience.
 

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 any general or special law to the contrary, there shall be a task force to study and analyze health insurance payer practices that require certain categories of drugs, including those that are administered by injection or infusion, to be dispensed by a third-party specialty pharmacy directly to a patient or to a health care provider with the designation that such drugs be used for a specific patient and not for the general use of the provider. The task force shall conduct an investigation and study of such practice including the extent to which it affects health care quality, patient safety and health care cost containment goals, and whether such practice should be regulated or restricted.

The task force shall consist of the secretary of health and human services or a designee, who shall serve as chair; the commissioner of public health or a designee; the commissioner of insurance or a designee; the executive director of the health policy commission or a designee; the executive director of the group insurance commission or a designee; the president of the Massachusetts Hospital Association, Inc.; the executive director of  the Massachusetts Council of Community Hospitals, Inc.; a representative of the Massachusetts Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Inc.; a representative of the Conference of Boston Teaching Hospitals, Inc.; the president of the Massachusetts Association of Health Plans, Inc.; and the president of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Inc., or a designee.

The task force shall prepare a report of its findings, including recommended legislation. The task force shall file the report with the senate and house committees on ways and means, the joint committee on health care financing and the joint committee on public health not later than July 1, 2017.

SECTION 2.  This act shall take effect as of July 1, 2016.