By: Zaffirini, Moncrief S.C.R. No. 56 SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 1-1 WHEREAS, In its report to the 74th Texas Legislature, the 1-2 Senate Health and Human Services Committee concluded that 1-3 significant benefits would accrue if a Medicaid managed care 1-4 program were established statewide, and the committee recommended 1-5 further that the current Vendor Drug Program, with additional cost 1-6 containment measures, be retained in any managed care system; and 1-7 WHEREAS, The Vendor Drug Program at the Texas Department of 1-8 Health currently processes claims for Medicaid prescription drugs 1-9 directly on a fee-for-service basis, and recent evaluations have 1-10 concluded that the program has done a very good job in implementing 1-11 a variety of prescription drug benefit management techniques; and 1-12 WHEREAS, The program is a known process that is compatible 1-13 with managed care, and retaining the program will allow the state 1-14 to build on existing successes, keep its rebates, and ensure a 1-15 consistent pharmacy benefit policy for all Medicaid clients; and 1-16 WHEREAS, Limited cost containment measures were additionally 1-17 recommended by the committee to make the program even more 1-18 efficient; these measures included computer-based rebate 1-19 monitoring, which will allow the program to monitor rebate billing 1-20 on-line, and prospective drug utilization, which will allow a 1-21 dispensing pharmacist to be warned of other medications that the 1-22 patient is taking that may cause harmful interactions; now, 1-23 therefore, be it 1-24 RESOLVED, That the 74th Legislature of the State of Texas 2-1 hereby direct the State Medicaid Office, in implementing managed 2-2 care, to continue to administer the prescription drug benefit under 2-3 the state Vendor Drug Program; and, be it further 2-4 RESOLVED, That the State Medicaid Office accelerate the 2-5 implementation of computer-based rebate monitoring and prospective 2-6 drug utilization review; and, be it further 2-7 RESOLVED, That savings realized from this directive be 2-8 committed to reducing costs in other Medicaid line items or raising 2-9 or eliminating the three-prescription limit; and, be it further 2-10 RESOLVED, That the secretary of state forward an official 2-11 copy of this resolution to the State Medicaid Office.