HF 292 – Medicaid appeals report
SF 563 – Pharmacy Benefit Manager Reporting
HF 700 – Pharmacists authority to refill insulin prescriptions
SF 542 – Dually eligible Medicare and Medicaid members in nursing facilities
COMMITTEE ACTION:
HF 292 – Medicaid appeals report
HF 292 requires the Department of Human Services (DHS) to report annually their analysis and findings relative to Medicaid member appeals that have been dismissed, withdrawn or overturned to determine if there are any negative patterns or trends. Current law requires them to report this information twice per year. An amendment was also adopted in committee to require the twice-per-year reporting until 2021, when the schedule will return to once per year.
[4/4: 12-0 (Excused: Garrett)]
HF 532 – Medical residencies
HF 532 requires the Medical Residency Training state matching grants program and the awarding of residencies by the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics (UIHC) to give priority to eligible applicants who are residents of Iowa, attended and earned an undergraduate degree from an Iowa college or university, or attended and earned a medical degree from a medical school in Iowa. A person who receives these types of medical residency positions must be provided the opportunity to participate in a rural rotation to expose the resident to rural areas of Iowa. An amendment was adopted in committee to specify primary care (including psychiatry) resident positions. The amendment also directs the UIHC to allow DMU fourth-year students to take elective classes at Carver College of Medicine if space is available. The University of Iowa’s College of Medicine must conduct a study of the state’s workforce challenges in recruiting and retaining primary and specialty care physicians.
[4/4: 12-0 (Excused: Garrett)]
FLOOR ACTION:
SF 563 – Pharmacy Benefit Manager Reporting
SF 563, as amended on the floor, requires a Pharmacy Benefit Manager to submit an annual report to the Insurance Commissioner regarding fees, drug prices and rebates the received, in the aggregate. The Insurance Commissioner must make the information available to the public online.
[4/10: 49-0 (Excused: Feenstra)]
HF 700 – Pharmacists authority to refill insulin prescriptions
HF 700, as amended on the floor, adds to the existing authority for a pharmacist to refill a prescription without prescriber authorization. A pharmacist may exercise professional judgment and refill a prescription for and dispense insulin without prescriber authorization if the following conditions exist: the pharmacy has a record of the patient’s expired prescription; the pharmacist is unable to contact the prescriber; and the insulin is essential to the health of the patient. Up to a 30-day supply can be dispensed one time in a 12-month period.
[4/9: 49-0 (Excused: Feenstra)]
SF 542 – Dually eligible Medicare and Medicaid members in nursing facilities
SF 542 requires the Iowa Department of Human Services to seek approval from Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to allow the payment of nursing facility room and board expenses for a dually eligible Medicare and Medicaid member receiving the Medicare hospice benefit or a Medicaid-only member receiving hospice to be made directly to the nursing facility. Currently, the payments are made to hospice and passed along to the nursing facility. This bill is based on one of the options put forward by a 2018 interim workgroup.
[4/9: 48-0 (Excused: Bisignano, Feenstra)]