SENATE, No. 412

SECTION 1. Chapter 6A of the General laws, as amended by section 15 of chapter 26 of the Acts of 2003, is hereby amended by inserting after section 16 the following new section:-

Section 16A ½. (A) Notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary, the Secretary of Health and Human Services in consultation with the Secretary of Elder Affairs shall create a program to allow state employees, retirees and their family members who are insured by the Commonwealth, Mass Health recipients and Prescription Advantage enrollees to purchase their prescription medications from Canada through one or more licensed Canadian pharmacies within 90 days of such purchase becoming legal under federal law.  The program shall be optional for participants and shall provide financial incentives to enrollees in the form of reduced co-payments or health insurance premiums.

The program shall have the following restrictions:

(1)        Purchases may be made only through a licensed Canadian pharmacy;

(2)        Only drugs that have been approved by the appropriate federal agencies in Canada as to the drugs’ formulation, source and specification of active ingredients, processing methods, manufacturing controls, and the container, closure or packaging of the drug may be purchased through this program;

(3)        The Secretary shall establish standards for packaging and shipment of the drugs to participants that include tamper proof requirements and temperature controls for medications that need to be maintained at a specific temperature;

(4)        All purchases through this program must be accompanied by a valid prescription from the enrollee’s physician;

(5)        An enrollee may only purchase medications through this program that he or she has taken for at least 30 days as purchased from a pharmacy in the United States;

(6)        Medications purchased through this program may be for personal use only and may not be re-sold in any form; and

(7)        Purchases may be for no more than a 90-day supply per order.

(B) Within 90 days of the establishment of this program, the Secretary of Human Services shall expand the program to assist residents of the Commonwealth without adequate coverage for prescription drugs in purchasing their medications from the same licensed pharmacy or pharmacies in Canada .  For the purposes of this section, a resident without adequate coverage means a resident of the commonwealth with no insurance coverage for prescription drugs or with coverage for which the annual maximum coverage limit under his health benefit plan has been reached.  All the same requirements of subsection A shall apply.  The Secretary may establish an enrollment fee to cover administrative costs of the program for these residents, but all cost savings shall be realized by the enrollee.

(C) Any aggregate or bulk purchasing program operated by the secretary of health and human services for the purchase of prescription drugs under section 271 of chapter 127 of the acts of the Acts of 1999 or section 62 of chapter 177 of the Acts of 2001 or any other authority shall include an option for participants to purchase drugs from Canada through the program authorized by this section in order to maximize cost savings of the aggregate purchasing plan.

(D) Within 180 days of the establishment of the initial program, the secretary shall file a report with the House and Senate Committees on Ways and Means and the House and Senate Clerk detailing the number of participants in the program, a break down of participants by insurance group, the medications purchased through the program, the amount of savings realized by the Commonwealth, the amount of savings passed on to enrollees and any reports of safety concerns in the implementation of this program.

(E) The Secretary shall discontinue the program when medications purchased through the program can be purchased for comparable prices through Massachusetts’ pharmacies.  The Secretary shall determine if prices are comparable by comparing the cost of the 20 medications most commonly purchased through the program with the cost of the same 20 medications purchased by those insured by the Commonwealth who are not enrolled in the program.  The Secretary shall consider prices comparable if the average cost of these 20 medications purchased outside the program are no more than 10% more expensive than the cost of the medications purchased through the program including shipping and handling costs.  The Secretary shall annually compare prices in this manner to determine if such comparability exists.  When the Secretary has determined that discontinuing the program is appropriate under the requirements of this section, he shall notify all enrollees, the Joint Committee on Health Care, the House and Senate Committees on Ways and Means and the House and Senate Clerk 30 days prior to discontinuing the program.