Committee advances HB 1584 to fund pharmacy benefit manager enforcement unit

The Appropriations - Government Operations Division on Thursday advanced House Bill 1584 as amended, creating a new Pharmacy Benefit Manager Enforcement Fund, authorizing up to $1.2 million per biennium to the insurance commissioner to staff an enforcement unit, and directing an actuarial analysis of the bill’s effect on health insurance premiums and consumer drug prices.

The bill’s appropriations language would authorize up to $1,200,000 per biennium to the state Insurance Department to hire three full-time positions — an attorney, a pharmacist and an investigator — to carry out enforcement described elsewhere in the measure. Section 10 would create the new Pharmacy Benefit Manager Enforcement Fund to receive fees paid by pharmacy wholesalers and virtual wholesalers; section 12 would transfer the balance of the existing Drug Pricing Fund into the new account (the transfer amount was not specified in…