Drug Utilization Review Board Meeting
Minutes
December 13, 2006		
Meeting Purpose: Quarterly Open Board Meeting 6:00-8:00 P.M.

Agenda													 				
1.	Welcome and review of minutes
2.	Pharmaceutical Pipeline - What’s happening in 2007
3.	DUR Program update
4.	MHDL update
5.	MassHealth update
	
Agenda Item	Discussion	Conclusions/Follow Up	
Review of Minutes

	The minutes to the September 13, 2006, DUR Board meeting were reviewed and accepted as written with no changes noted.	Follow Ups
	
       Action	                                                                                                                                                          	Minutes accepted as written	

Agenda Item	Discussion	Conclusions/Follow Up	
Pharmaceutical Pipeline Presentation	 The Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy’s Educational Conference inspired a presentation regarding drugs that are in development or about to come off patent. The coming year will be good for generic formulations and also a big year for diabetes management. Some novel treatments for dyslipidemia were presented as well as a discussion of the competition in the asthma and COPD markets. New options in managing ADHD and narcolepsy were reviewed. Also proving particularly competitive in 2007 will be the Specialty Products Market. 	Follow Ups
	
Action		•	DUR and MassHealth will review new and generic drugs as they become available to the market.	

Agenda Item	Discussion	Conclusions/Follow Up	
DUR Metrics Up-date	A review of the current phone and PA metrics in the DUR program was presented. 
	Conclusions
Medicare Part D has decreased operations by about 30%, as expected. Metrics appear well within acceptable values.	
Action		•	Continue to follow metrics for trends and changes.	

Agenda Item	Discussion	Conclusions/Follow Up	
MHDL Update	The MHDL (MassHealth Drug List) update for December 15th was released.
		
Action		•	Drugs that have been reviewed were updated for PA vs. non-PA status and added to the list.	

Agenda Item	Discussion	Conclusions/Follow Up	
MassHealth
 Update	As a reminder, the minutes to this meeting will be published on the MassHealth Pharmacy Web site. This posting will also contain the meeting agendas and schedules. A new e-mail address has been created for DUR inquiries: DUR_Board@umassmed.edu. This new address will also be on the Web site posting. 

The Deficit Reduction Act (DRA) will redefine the federal upper limit price (FULP) and generic ingredient cost as of November 1, 2007, based on average manufacturer pricing (AMP) data. The result of this appears to lower the reimbursement rate to the pharmacist for dispensing generic products. At this time, the AMP data submitted to the states by CMS is not “clean,” therefore making it difficult to analyze. 

The DRA also mandates by 2008 that MassHealth begin collecting NDC data on physician administered drugs (office-administered). Currently, information is only collected on the “J ” code level. 

At this time it is unclear if the legislature will continue to provide a one-time 30 day wrap for Medicare Part D patients. It will probably come down to 12/30/06 before a decision is made. Medicare has also increased the copay for brand medications with an inflation factor of 10 cents. MassHealth is working on the programming to pay down the dime on the copay inflation for 1/1/07. 	Continue to review the DRA and the impact it will have on pharmacy and physician practice.

The Pharmacy Facts document will be sent out with any last minute legislative updates.	

Respectfully Submitted,

Amy Levy, RPh., MHP
DUR Program Director