(a) Every health care service plan that provides prescription drug benefits shall maintain an expeditious process by which prescribing providers may obtain authorization for a medically necessary nonformulary prescription drug. On or before July 1, 1999, every health care service plan that provides prescription drug benefits shall file with the department a description of its process, including timelines, for responding to authorization requests for nonformulary drugs. Any changes to this process shall be filed with the department pursuant to Section 1352. Each plan shall provide a written description of its most current process, including timelines, to its prescribing providers. For purposes of this section, a prescribing provider shall include a provider authorized to write a prescription, pursuant to subdivision (a) of Section 4040 of the Business and Professions Code, to treat a medical condition of an enrollee.

(b) Any plan that disapproves a request made pursuant to subdivision (a) by a prescribing provider to obtain authorization for a nonformulary drug shall provide the reasons for the disapproval in a notice provided to the enrollee. The notice shall indicate that the enrollee may file a grievance with the plan if the enrollee objects to the disapproval, including any alternative drug or treatment offered by the plan. The notice shall comply with subdivision (b) of Section 1368.02. Any health plan that is required to maintain an external exception request review process pursuant to subdivision (k) shall indicate in the notice required under this subdivision that the enrollee may file a grievance seeking an external exception request review.

(c) The process described in subdivision (a) by which prescribing providers may obtain authorization for medically necessary nonformulary drugs shall not apply to a nonformulary drug that has been prescribed for an enrollee in conformance with the provisions of Section 1367.22.

(d) The process described in subdivision (a) by which enrollees may obtain medically necessary nonformulary drugs, including specified timelines for responding to prescribing provider authorization requests, shall be described in evidence of coverage and disclosure forms, as required by subdivision (a) of Section 1363, issued on or after July 1, 1999.

(e) Every health care service plan that provides prescription drug benefits shall maintain, as part of its books and records under Section 1381, all of the following information, which shall be made available to the director upon request:

(1) The complete drug formulary or formularies of the plan, if the plan maintains a formulary, including a list of the prescription drugs on the formulary of the plan by major therapeutic category with an indication of whether any drugs are preferred over other drugs.

(2) Records developed by the pharmacy and therapeutic committee of the plan, or by others responsible for developing, modifying, and overseeing formularies, including medical groups, individual practice associations, and contracting pharmaceutical benefit management companies, used to guide the drugs prescribed for the enrollees of the plan, that fully describe the reasoning behind formulary decisions.

(3) Any plan arrangements with prescribing providers, medical groups, individual practice associations, pharmacists, contracting pharmaceutical benefit management companies, or other entities that are associated with activities of the plan to encourage formulary compliance or otherwise manage prescription drug benefits.

(f) If a plan provides prescription drug benefits, the department shall, as part of its periodic onsite medical survey of each plan undertaken pursuant to Section 1380, review the performance of the plan in providing those benefits, including, but not limited to, a review of the procedures and information maintained pursuant to this section, and describe the performance of the plan as part of its report issued pursuant to Section 1380.

(g) The director shall not publicly disclose any information reviewed pursuant to this section that is determined by the director to be confidential pursuant to state law.

(h) For purposes of this section, “authorization” means approval by the health care service plan to provide payment for the prescription drug.

(i) Nonformulary prescription drugs shall include any drug for which an enrollee’s copayment or out-of-pocket costs are different than the copayment for a formulary prescription drug, except as otherwise provided by law or regulation or in cases in which the drug has been excluded in the plan contract pursuant to Section 1342.7.

(j) Nothing in this section shall be construed to restrict or impair the application of any other provision of this chapter, including, but not limited to, Section 1367, which includes among its requirements that a health care service plan furnish services in a manner providing continuity of care and demonstrate that medical decisions are rendered by qualified medical providers unhindered by fiscal and administrative management.

(k) For any individual, small group, or large health plan contracts, a health care service plan’s process described in subdivision (a) shall comply with the request for exception and external exception request review processes described in subdivision (c) of Section 156.122 of Title 45 of the Code of Federal Regulations. This subdivision shall not apply to Medi-Cal managed care health care service plan contracts as described in subdivision (l).

(l) “Medi-Cal managed care health care service plan contract” means any entity that enters into a contract with the State Department of Health Care Services pursuant to Chapter 7 (commencing with Section 14000), Chapter 8 (commencing with Section 14200), or Chapter 8.75 (commencing with Section 14591) of Part 3 of Division 9 of the Welfare and Institutions Code.

(m) Nothing in this section shall be construed to affect an enrollee’s or subscriber’s eligibility to submit a grievance to the department for review under Section 1368 or to apply to the department for an independent medical review under Section 1370.4, or Article 5.55 (commencing with Section 1374.30) of this chapter.

(Amended by Stats. 2015, Ch. 654, Sec. 1. (SB 282) Effective January 1, 2016.)