A battle over the constitutionality of a 2015 Arkansas law that requires benefits managers to reimburse pharmacists at or above their wholesale cost of generic drugs heated up again last week.
On March 1, Chief U.S. District Judge Brian Miller threw out a federal lawsuit that a national trade group for benefits managers had filed to challenge Act 900 of 2015, which took effect on July 22, 2015. The law requires benefits managers for insurance companies and health plans to reimburse pharmacies at or above to the cost the pharmacy paid for any generic drugs from a wholesale supplier.
Pharmacists said the law was needed to stop them from being shorted as a result of benefits managers reimbursing them on the basis of of often-outdated Maximum Allowable Cost lists.
Miller said the state law was enacted for a legitimate reason -- to address financial hardships suffered by independent community pharmacies that have had to eliminate employees over the past five to 10 years.
The trade group, the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, filed a notice last Monday that it intends to appeal Miller's ruling to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Later in the week, state Attorney General Leslie Rutledge's office filed a notice that it intends to file a cross-appeal.
Rutledge's spokesman said on March 1 that she was pleased that the state had prevailed on four of five claims at issue in the lawsuit but was still reviewing the decision to see whether an appeal was warranted.
Miller said in his ruling that he doesn't believe the state law interferes with federal laws. However, he also noted that the 8th Circuit had disagreed on one point in a similar ruling by an Iowa district judge.
Miller said that in order to comply with the appellate court's directive, the law is invalid in one respect, as applied to the administration and management of plans covered by the Employment Retirement Income Security Act of 1974.
Metro on 03/27/2017