The bill targets a practice called “step therapy,” in which insurers can require that less expensive medication be tried before the medication preferred by the physician. Insurers achieve this by delaying prescriptions by various means including prior authorization requirements. Under the bill, once one pain medication has been tried and has failed, the patient can get the physician’s preferred medication, according to the report.
The bill was released by the Assembly Appropriations Committee on Dec. 13, 2012. The senate version of the bill has been referred to the Senate Commerce Committee.
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