SCS/SB 782 - This act amends one section contained in HB 335 (1997), relating to the definition of maintenance drugs covered under a health maintenance organization (HMO). Under current law, both the enrollee and the enrollee's physician must approve the substitution of a generic drug for a prescribed maintenance drug. The law excludes "narrow therapeutic index drugs" from the definition of maintenance drugs to allow generic substitution for these drugs without physician/enrollee approval.

This act removes language that indirectly allows generic substitution for narrow therapeutic index. Physician/enrollee approval will be required prior to a therapeutic, generic, or drug product substitution of an enrollee's maintenance drug.
JOHN MESSMER