(a) The department may enter into contracts with manufacturers of enteral nutrition products that can be used as a therapeutic regimen to prevent serious disability or death in patients with medically diagnosed conditions that preclude the full use of regular food, on a bid or nonbid basis. The department shall maintain a list of those products for which contracts have been executed. For those contracts that generate rebates, those rebates shall be managed through the department’s drug rebate accounting system.
(b) (1) To ensure that the health needs of Medi-Cal beneficiaries are met, the department shall, when evaluating a decision to execute a contract, and when evaluating enteral nutrition products for retention on, addition to, or deletion from, the list of enteral nutrition products, consider all of the following criteria:
(A) The safety of the product.
(B) The effectiveness of the product.
(C) The essential need for the product.
(D) The potential for misuse of the product.
(E) The immediate or long-term cost effectiveness of the product.
(2) The deficiency of a product when measured by one of the criteria specified in paragraph (1) may be sufficient to support a decision that the product should be deleted from, should not be added to, or should not be retained on, the list of medical supplies. However, the superiority of a product under one criterion may be sufficient to warrant the addition or retention of the product, notwithstanding a deficiency in another criterion.
(c) In order that Medi-Cal beneficiaries may have access to a comprehensive range of enteral nutrition products pursuant to subdivision (a), the department shall ensure that there is representation on the list of both general use and specialized use enteral nutrition products. The department deems all products designed to meet the normal needs of infants, and all products that are an incomplete source of nutrition, including modular products, and all products intended for use in weight loss, are not benefits of the Medi-Cal program. The department may deem an incomplete product a benefit for patients with diagnoses, including, but not limited to, malabsorption and inborn errors of metabolism, when the product either appropriately lacks only an offending nutrient, or has been shown to not be investigational nor experimental when used as part of a therapeutic regimen to prevent serious disability or death, or when both conditions apply.
(d) In order to achieve maximum cost savings, the Legislature declares that an expedited process for contracts under this section is necessary. Therefore, contracts entered into on a nonbid basis shall be exempt from Chapter 2 (commencing with Section 10290) of Part 2 of Division 2 of the Public Contract Code.
(e) Deletions made to the list of enteral nutrition products shall become effective no sooner than 30 days after publication of the changes in provider bulletins.
(f) Changes made to the list of enteral nutrition products under this or any other section are exempt from the requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act (Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 11340), Chapter 4 (commencing with Section 11370), and Chapter 5 (commencing with Section 11500) of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code), and shall not be subject to the review and approval of the Office of Administrative Law.
(g) The department may provide beneficiaries continuing care for products deleted from the list of enteral nutrition products. The department shall assess the need for continuing care based on the criteria in subdivision (b) and the potential impact on beneficiary access to appropriate therapy. To be eligible for continuing care status under this subdivision, a beneficiary must be taking the enteral nutrition product when the product is deleted. Additionally, the department shall have received a claim for the enteral nutrition product with a date of service that is within 100 days prior to the date the product was deleted. A beneficiary shall remain eligible for continuing care status provided that a claim is submitted for the enteral nutrition product in question at least every 100 days and the date of service of the claim is within 100 days of the date of service of the last claim submitted for the same enteral nutrition product.
(h) The department shall provide individual notice to Medi-Cal beneficiaries at least 60 calendar days prior to the effective date of the deletion of any enteral nutrition product from the list of enteral nutrition products. The notice shall include a description of the beneficiary’s right to a fair hearing and shall encourage the beneficiary to consult a physician to determine if an appropriate substitute enteral nutrition product is available from Medi-Cal.
(i) Enteral nutrition products authorized pursuant to subdivision (a) shall be available only through prior authorization. The department may designate those enteral nutrition products that are without a contract as not being a benefit of the Medi-Cal program, except in the case of continuing care as described in subdivision (h) of this section.
(j) Contracts executed pursuant to this section shall be confidential and shall be exempt from disclosure under the California Public Records Act (Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 6250) of Division 7 of Title 1 of the Government Code).
(k) (1) Manufacturers shall calculate and pay interest on late or unpaid rebates.
(2) Interest pursuant to paragraph (1) shall begin accruing 38 calendar days from the date of mailing of the quarterly invoice, including supporting utilization data sent to the manufacturer. Interest shall continue to accrue until the date of mailing of the manufacturer’s payment.
(3) Interest rates and calculations pursuant to paragraph (1) shall be identical and shall be equal to the drug rebate interest rates as determined by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Medicaid Drug Rebate Program Releases or regulations.
(4) If the date of mailing of a state rebate payment is 69 days of more from the date of mailing of the invoice, including supporting utilization data sent to the manufacturer, the interest rate shall be as specified in paragraph (3), however the interest rate shall be increased by 10 percentage points.
(l) The department may adopt emergency regulations to implement this section in accordance with the rulemaking provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act (Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 11340) of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code).
(Amended by Stats. 2007, Ch. 188, Sec. 67. Effective August 24, 2007.)