Vendor Drug Program Holds Quarterly Pharmacy Stakeholder Meeting

Texas Pharmacy Association representatives attended the Vendor Drug Program’s (VDP) quarterly pharmacy stakeholder meeting Wednesday, where VDP shared information on ongoing projects and provided several reminders for pharmacy. Key items discussed included:

• An update to the Maximum Allowable Cost (MAC) policy to clarify expectations for appeals.
  
• Notification that Medicaid is in the process of updating MCO pharmacy network adequacy requirements to include the time it takes to get to a pharmacy for a Medicaid client. VDP is in the beginning phase of this change, so much more to come.
• As of July 27 at 4 p.m., the grace period and override codes for non-Medicaid enrolled prescribing providers will end. This means pharmacies will no longer be allowed to dispense medication to Medicaid clients that have been prescribed by a prescriber who is not enrolled in Medicaid.
• Following pharmacy’s concerns, VDP established new policy for development of the Specialty Drug List that includes more opportunity for stakeholder input to the medications prior to finalizing the list.

VDP is working on a draft for a uniform opioid policy in Medicaid fee-for-service and managed care. It is also finalizing a report completed by an outside contractor, the University of Massachusetts Medical School, identifying pharmacy-related value-based models in Texas and other states.