Legislative Study Committee Proposes Step Therapy Legislation
An NC House study committee investigating step therapy (“fail first”) pharmaceutical coverage policies adopted a report this week which includes a bill for consideration in this year’s legislative session. The report recommends that step therapy protocols be amended to ensure proper administration and consistency with clinical practice guidelines and also recommends removing barriers to abuse-deterrent opioids. The NC General Assembly reconvenes on April 25.
The House Select Committee on Step Therapy was appointed to study the issue during the interim period between the 2015 and 2016 legislative sessions. At a recent meeting, Dr. John Scagnelli, neurologist and MS specialist at Raleigh Neurology, testified before the committee on how step therapy restrictions can negatively impact the care of MS patients. Other specialties to testify included dermatology and rheumatology.
The report also takes aim at the growing opioid abuse epidemic by recommending that patients be granted access to opioids formulated with new abuse-deterrent technologies. The study committee report concludes that access to these products should be increased, consistent with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s labeling of such as a national priority. In related news, the NC Medical Board recently announced a new program to monitor opioid prescribing in the state.
Copies of meeting agendas and presentations to the committee, as well as the committee’s findings, recommendations and bill language, are available on the committee website. For materials related to this week’s proceedings, April 19, 2016, see the folder dated online as 4.19.15.
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