Florida pharmacy advocacy group Small Business Pharmacies Aligned for Reform (SPAR) and national advocacy group Pharmacists United for Truth and Transparency (PUTT) counseled with Republican and Democrat state representatives to advocate for HB 1043's passage.
HB 1043, titled, "Medicaid Pharmacy Benefit Savings" would require:
"AHCA to select single pharmacy benefit administrator through competitive procurement process by specified date; provides contract requirements; requires agency to calculate amount equal to specified percentage of managed care organization's net underwriting gain for certain contract year & reduce organization's contract term payment by such amount."
The sponsor of the bill, Rep. Randy Fine (D-53) claims that with this bill, "there will be losers", however, "the taxpayer, the recipient, and the local pharmacy will benefit. The people we are here to fight for will benefit."
Dawn Butterfield, the founding member of SPAR, claims that, "We as independent pharmacy owners have been ringing in our state's Medicaid program for more than three years."
Butterfield continues to have faith in the actions taken through HB 1043, as the bill, "is a step in the right direction for Florida taxpayers, patients and local pharmacies."
On the Senate side, Sen. Ana Maria Rodriguez (R-39) is authoring a similar bill, SB 1306, also called, "Medicaid Pharmacy Benefit Savings Optimization Act."
When all said and done, the simultaneous bills would save the state roughly $150 million in prescription drug costs, while increasing access to Florida's Medicaid recipients.
Senator Rodriguez commented on the numbers calling this, "no small amount of money. That's a lot of money, and a lot of taxpayer dollars these bills will save the state."
