Committee backs Ways and Means changes to bill creating Vermont prescription drug discount card

The House Health Committee reviewed Ways and Means’ amendments to H.B. 577, the bill to establish a Vermont prescription drug discount card program, and indicated support for the changes in a committee straw poll.

Legislative Council staff explained that Ways and Means struck language that would have allowed the State Treasurer to require reasonable fees to defray program costs and instead proposed depositing any program moneys into an existing Financial Literacy and Economic Empowerment Trust Fund. The amendment also removes a provision asking the Treasurer to recommend fees in the implementation report and keeps the committee’s previously adopted co-pay accumulator language unchanged.

A staff member said the Appropriations Committee included a $50,000 appropriation to implement the program and that the amendment would cause moneys received through the program — including any amounts returned to Vermont from the ARX consortium’s transaction revenues — to be deposited and tracked in the existing trust fund rather than creating a new special fund.

Members asked whether the $50,000 appropriation or future revenue could be used for other purposes. A Representative pressed for assurance that funds dedicated to implementing the prescription drug program would not be diverted; Legislative Council staff said the appropriation is intended to be used for implementation and that the Treasurer’s office tracks monies separately for such purposes.

Peter Thomley of the Office of the State Treasurer told the committee that ARX collects a fee as part of the price of covered drugs, the ARX steering committee sets the consortium budget and returns any leftover revenue to member states proportionally. “We will be able to collect revenues from the program that are left over from what is needed to fund it,” Thomley said, and added that the Treasurer’s office currently manages separate monies within pooled accounts and tracks payments and disbursements so funds are not commingled for other uses.

Thomley said the treasurer’s office supports the amended fee language, adding it “more accurately reflects our intent” and clarified that the office was not planning to charge fees beyond those already built into drug prices.

The committee took a straw poll on whether to accept the Ways and Means amendment; members indicated a 9–0–2 result in favor of adopting the amendment in committee. The straw poll is an indication of committee sentiment and not a final legislative passage; further procedural steps remain before the bill could take effect.

The committee’s discussion also noted that sections dealing with co-pay accumulators remain as previously passed by the committee. The amendment’s effective date language as discussed would make the act take effect July 1 under the proposed changes.