(a) In order to ensure that drug products in an injectable form that are not administered by the patient are available to Medi-Cal beneficiaries pursuant to federal law, the department shall do all of the following with respect to any such drug product:

(1) (A) Develop and publish a medical benefit drug utilization policy within 180 days of being notified by the manufacturer of approval of the product by the federal Food and Drug Administration. The policy shall be published in the Medi-Cal provider bulletin that immediately follows that 180-day period. The effective date of the drug utilization policy shall be no later than the publication date of the bulletin.

(B) If the department is unable to complete and publish the policy within the period specified in subparagraph (A), the department shall, until completion of the utilization policy, allow providers to use the utilization standards approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration that are contained in the official package circular or insert for the product when the department reviews a provider’s submission for utilization of the product. The department shall allow the product to be billed and reimbursed using a miscellaneous billing code until the permanent code is assigned and published pursuant to paragraph (3).

(2) Evaluate the necessity of utilization controls, and publish all utilization controls in both the final drug utilization policy and the Medi-Cal provider bulletin.

(3) Ensure that the fiscal intermediary enters into the Medi-Cal database the code assigned to the product within 60 days of the date the code was assigned to the product.

(b) Nothing in this section shall be construed to affect the department’s authority to require a provider to obtain prior authorization for dispensing or administering an injectable drug.

(Added by Stats. 2006, Ch. 792, Sec. 1. Effective January 1, 2007.)