(a) (1) Notwithstanding Section 1342.71, a health care service plan shall not subject antiretroviral drugs that are medically necessary for the prevention of AIDS/HIV, including preexposure prophylaxis or postexposure prophylaxis, to prior authorization or step therapy, except as provided in paragraph (2).

(2) If the United States Food and Drug Administration has approved one or more therapeutic equivalents of a drug, device, or product for the prevention of AIDS/HIV, this section does not require a health care service plan to cover all of the therapeutically equivalent versions without prior authorization or step therapy, if at least one therapeutically equivalent version is covered without prior authorization or step therapy.

(b) Notwithstanding any other law, a health care service plan shall not prohibit, or permit a delegated pharmacy benefit manager to prohibit, a pharmacy provider from dispensing preexposure prophylaxis or postexposure prophylaxis.

(c) A health care service plan shall not cover preexposure prophylaxis that has been furnished by a pharmacist, as authorized in Section 4052.02 of the Business and Professions Code, in excess of a 60-day supply to a single patient once every two years, unless the pharmacist has been directed otherwise by a prescriber.

(d) This section does not require a health care service plan to cover preexposure prophylaxis or postexposure prophylaxis by a pharmacist at an out-of-network pharmacy, unless the health care service plan has an out-of-network pharmacy benefit.

(Added by Stats. 2019, Ch. 532, Sec. 4. (SB 159) Effective January 1, 2020.)