HB1959: Medication abandonment and increasing patient medication adherence; options for reducing rates.

HOUSE BILL NO. 1959

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. § 1. That the Health Professions Subcommittee of the Committee on Health, Welfare and Institutions shall study options for reducing the rates of medication abandonment and increasing patient medication adherence, including the feasibility of permitting health plans and pharmacy benefits managers to make available in real time to enrollees and their health care providers, upon request of such health care provider made at the time a prescription drug is prescribed to an enrollee, information regarding the actual cost and any benefits of the prescription drug and any health insurance coverage related to the prescription drug. In conducting such study, the Subcommittee shall include opportunity for participation and comment from relevant stakeholders, including representatives of patient advocacy organizations, licensed health care providers, pharmacists, electronic health record manufacturers and distributors and other intermediaries, insurers, and pharmacy benefits managers, and shall (i) review information regarding the rates of medication abandonment at the point of sale; (ii) evaluate options for increasing transparency related to the cost of and access to a prescription drug at the time of prescribing and any burdens such options may create for prescribers and dispensers; (iii) identify the entities best equipped to transmit and share information regarding the actual cost and any benefits of a prescription drug for a patient and any health insurance coverage related to the prescription drug to a prescriber in real time in a format that is easily accessible to the prescriber upon such prescriber's request; and (iv) develop recommendations for reducing the rates of medication abandonment and increasing patient medication adherence, including the feasibility of permitting health plans and pharmacy benefits managers to make available in real time to enrollees and their health care providers, upon request of such health care provider made at the time a prescription drug is prescribed to an enrollee, information regarding the actual cost and any benefits of the prescription drug and any health insurance coverage related to the prescription drug.