The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear Rutledge v. PCMA, a case which seeks to reinstate an Arkansas law that regulates pharmacy benefit managers (PBM). The PBM's trade group, Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA), successfully challenged the law on Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) preemption grounds in the Eighth Circuit.

In the Administration and in Congress, significant energy was spent working toward solutions to the high costs of prescription drugs which kept a growing focus on the PBM role in rising costs through Part D DIR charges and Medicaid managed care spread pricing.

Starting in January with California announcing it would carve out its Medicaid prescription program from their Medicaid managed care program, more states acted throughout 2019 to address MCO PBM abuses that affect patients, taxpayers and pharmacy providers. In May, North Dakota also carved out its Medicaid prescription benefit back into its fee for service program with a budgeted net savings.

President Trump recently tweeted that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) “will soon release a plan to let Florida and other states import prescription drugs that are MUCH CHEAPER than what we have now!”

USP <800> was published on Feb. 1, 2016 with an implementation date of Dec. 2019. The purpose of the chapter is to describe practice and quality standards for handling hazardous drugs in health care settings and help promote patient and worker safety, as well as environmental protection.

The United States Pharmacopeia(USP) today notified stakeholders that it is postponing the official effective dates of several new and revised standards pertaining to pharmaceutical handling until further notice while it reviews appeals to the standards.