A. As of January 1, 2014, group health coverage, including any form of self-insurance, offered, issued or renewed under the Health Care Purchasing Act that provides coverage for prescription drugs categorized or tiered for purposes of cost-sharing through deductibles or coinsurance obligations shall not make any of the following changes to coverage for a prescription drug within one hundred twenty days of any previous change to coverage for that prescription drug, unless a generic version of the prescription drug is available:

(1) reclassify a drug to a higher tier of the formulary;

(2) reclassify a drug from a preferred classification to a non-preferred classification, unless that reclassification results in the drug moving to a lower tier of the formulary;

(3) increase the cost-sharing, copayment, deductible or co-insurance charges for a drug;

(4) remove a drug from the formulary;

(5) establish a prior authorization requirement;

(6) impose or modify a drug's quantity limit; or

(7) impose a step-therapy restriction.

B. The administrator for the group health coverage shall give the affected enrollee at least sixty days' advance written notice of the impending change when it is determined that one of the following modifications will made to a formulary:

(1) reclassification of a drug to a higher tier of the formulary;

(2) reclassification of a drug from a preferred classification to a non-preferred classification, unless that reclassification results in the drug moving to a lower tier of the formulary;

(3) an increase in the cost-sharing, copayment, deductible or coinsurance charges for a drug;

(4) removal of a drug from the formulary;

(5) addition of a prior authorization requirement;

(6) imposition or modification of a drug's quantity limit; or

(7) imposition of a step-therapy restriction for a drug.

C. Notwithstanding the provisions of Subsections A and B of this section, the administrator for group health coverage may immediately and without prior notice remove a drug from the formulary if the drug:

(1) is deemed unsafe by the federal food and drug administration; or

(2) has been removed from the market for any reason.

D. The administrator for group health coverage prescription drug benefits shall provide to each affected enrollee the following information in plain language regarding prescription drug benefits:

(1) notice that the group health plan uses one or more drug formularies;

(2) an explanation of what the drug formulary is;

(3) a statement regarding the method the group health plan uses to determine the prescription drugs to be included in or excluded from a drug formulary; and

(4) a statement of how often the group health plan administrator reviews the contents of each drug formulary.

E. As used in this section:

(1) "formulary" means the list of prescription drugs covered by group health coverage; and

(2) "step therapy" means a protocol that establishes the specific sequence in which prescription drugs for a specified medical condition and medically appropriate for a particular patient are to be prescribed.

History: Laws 2013, ch. 138, § 1.

Effective dates. — Laws 2013, ch. 138 contained no effective date provision, but, pursuant to N.M. Const., art. IV, § 23, was effective June 14, 2013, 90 days after the adjournment of the legislature.