SRC-JEC S.B. 895 77(R)   BILL ANALYSIS


Senate Research Center   S.B. 895
77R2343 KLA-DBy: Moncrief
Health & Human Services
3/20/2001
As Filed


DIGEST AND PURPOSE 

The cost of prescription drugs has risen 48 percent in the past eight
years.  Because older adults are more likely to be regular users of
prescription drugs and less likely to have prescription drug coverage,
necessary prescription drugs are a significant out-of-pocket expense.  As
proposed, S.B. 895 creates a state pharmaceutical assistance program to
serve certain Medicare beneficiaries. 

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

Rulemaking authority is expressly granted to the Health and Human Services
Commission in SECTION 1 (Sections 531.302 and 531.304, Government Code) of
this bill. 

SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS

SECTION 1.  Amends Chapter 531, Government Code, by adding Subchapter I, as
follows: 

SUBCHAPTER I.  STATE PRESCRIPTION DRUG PROGRAM

Sec. 531.301.  DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION OF STATE PROGRAM; FUNDING.
(a)  Requires the Health and Human Services Commission (commission) to
develop and implement a state prescription drug program that operates in
the same manner as the vendor drug program operates in providing
prescription drug benefits to recipients of medical assistance under
Chapter 32 (Medical Assistance Program), Human Resources Code. 

(b)  Sets forth criteria for eligibility for prescription drug benefits
under the state program. 

(c)  Authorizes prescription drugs under the state program to be funded
only with state money. 

Sec. 531.302.  RULES.  Requires the commission to adopt all rules necessary
for implementation of the state prescription drug program.  Requires the
rules, except as provided by this subchapter, to be designed to result in a
state program that is substantively identical to the vendor drug program
operated under the medical assistance program under Chapter 32, Human
Resources Code, except to the extent that programmatic differences are
appropriate because of the populations served by those programs and the
sources of funding for those programs. 

Sec. 531.303.  COST-SHARING PAYMENTS PROHIBITED.  Prohibits the commission
from requiring a person who is eligible for prescription drug benefits
under the state program to pay for a premium, a deductible, coinsurance, or
another cost-sharing payment. 

Sec. 531.304.  GENERIC EQUIVALENT AUTHORIZED.  Authorizes the commission,
in adopting rules under the state program, to require that, unless the
practitioner's signature on a prescription clearly indicates that the
prescription must be dispensed as written, the pharmacist  may select a
generic equivalent of the prescribed drug. 

SECTION 2.  Requires the commission to develop and implement the state
prescription drug program under Chapter 531I, Government Code, as added by
this Act, not later than January 1, 2002. 

SECTION 3.  Effective date: September 1, 2001.