Library: Policy

317:30-5-78. Reimbursement

Revised 3-1-24

(a) Reimbursement. Reimbursement for pharmacy claims is based on the sum of the ingredient cost plus a professional dispensing fee for brand and generic drugs dispensed by a retail community pharmacy or for a member residing in a long term care facility.

(b) Ingredient Cost. Ingredient cost is determined by one of the following methods:

(1) Maximum Allowable Cost. The State Maximum Allowable Cost (SMAC) is established for certain products which have a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved generic equivalent. The SMAC will be calculated using prices from pharmaceutical wholesalers who supply these products to pharmacy providers in Oklahoma. Pharmacies may challenge a specific product's SMAC price by providing information from their wholesaler(s) to certify a net cost higher than the calculated SMAC price and that there is not another product available to them which is generically equivalent to the higher priced product.

(2) Actual Acquisition Cost. The Actual Acquisition Cost (AAC) means the cost of a particular drug product to the pharmacy based on a review of invoices or the Wholesale Acquisition Cost (WAC), whichever is lower. The National Average Drug Acquisition Cost (NADAC) is based on a review of invoices and published by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and will be used in the determination of AAC.

(3) Specialty Pharmaceutical Allowable Cost. Reimbursement for specialty drugs not typically dispensed by a retail community pharmacy and dispensed primarily by delivery, including clotting factor for hemophilia, shall be set as a Specialty Pharmaceutical Allowable Cost (SPAC). The Medicare Part B allowed charge, WAC, and NADAC when available, will be considered in setting the SPAC rate. For the purpose of this section, a drug may be classified as a specialty drug when it has one or more of the following characteristics:

(A) Covered by Medicare Part B;

(B) "5i drug" B Injected, infused, instilled, inhaled, or implanted;

(D) Licensed by the FDA under a Biological License Application;

(E) Special storage, shipping, or handling requirements;

(F) Available only through a limited distribution network; and/or

(G) Does not have a NADAC price from CMS.

(4) Exceptions.

(A) Physician administered drugs shall be priced based on a formula equivalent to the Medicare Part B allowed charge. If a price equivalent to the Medicare Part B allowed charge cannot be determined, a purchase invoice may be supplied by the provider and will be considered in setting the reimbursement.

(B) I/T/U pharmacies shall be reimbursed at the OMB encounter rate as a per member per facility per day fee regardless of the number of prescriptions filled on that day. I/T/U pharmacies should not split prescriptions into quantities less than a one month supply for maintenance medications. For this purpose a maintenance medication is one that the member uses consistently month to month.

(C) Pharmacies other than I/T/U facilities that acquire drugs via the Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) or at nominal price outside the 340B program or FSS shall notify OHCA and submit claims at their actual invoice price plus a professional dispensing fee.

(c) Professional dispensing fee. The professional dispensing fee for prescribed medication is established by review of surveys. A recommendation is made by the State Plan Amendment Rate Committee and presented to the Oklahoma Health Care Authority Board for their approval. There may be more than one level or type of dispensing fee if approved by the OHCA Board and CMS. A contracted pharmacy agrees to participate in any survey conducted by the OHCA with regard to dispensing fees. The pharmacy shall furnish all necessary information to determine the cost of dispensing drug products. Failure to participate may result in administrative sanctions by the OHCA which may include but are not limited to a reduction in the dispensing fee.

(d) Reimbursement for prescription claims. Prescription claims will be reimbursed using the lower of the following calculation methods:

(1) the lower of Actual Acquisition Cost (AAC), State Maximum Allowable Cost (SMAC), or Specialty Pharmaceutical Allowable Cost (SPAC) plus a professional dispensing fee, or

(2) usual and customary charge to the general public. The pharmacy is responsible to determine its usual and customary charge to the general public and submit it to OHCA on each pharmacy claim. The OHCA may conduct periodic reviews within its audit guidelines to verify the pharmacy's usual and customary charge to the general public and the pharmacy agrees to make available to the OHCA's reviewers prescription and pricing records deemed necessary by the reviewers. The OHCA defines general public as the patient group accounting for the largest number of non-SoonerCare prescriptions from the individual pharmacy, but does not include patients who purchase or receive their prescriptions through other third-party payers. If a pharmacy offers discount prices to a portion of its customers (i.e. -10% discount to senior citizens), these lower prices would be excluded from the usual and customary calculations unless the patients receiving the favorable prices represent more than 50% of the pharmacy's prescription volume. The usual and customary charge will be a single price which includes both the product price and the dispensing fee. For routine usual and customary reviews, the pharmacy may provide prescription records for non-SoonerCare customers in a manner which does not identify the customer by name so long as the customer's identity may be determined later if a subsequent audit is initiated. The OHCA will provide the pharmacy notice of its intent to conduct a review of usual and customary charges at least ten days in advance of its planned date of review.

(e) Payment of Claims. In order for an eligible provider to be paid for filling a prescription drug, the pharmacy must complete all of the following:

(1) have an existing provider agreement with OHCA,

(2) submit the claim in a format acceptable to OHCA,

(3) have a prior authorization before filling the prescription, if a prior authorization is necessary,

(4) have a proper brand name certification for the drug, if necessary, and

(5) include the usual and customary charges to the general public as well as the actual acquisition cost and professional dispensing fee.

(f) Claims. Prescription reimbursement may be made only for individuals who are eligible for coverage at the time a prescription is filled. Member eligibility information may be accessed by swiping a SoonerCare identification card through a commercial card swipe machine which is connected to the eligibility database or via the Point of Sale (POS) system when a prescription claim is submitted for payment. Persons who do not contract with commercial vendors can use the Member Eligibility Verification System (EVS) at no additional cost.