GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

SESSION 1993

S	1 

SENATE BILL 203

Short Title:  GPAC/Freeze Drug Dispensing Fee.	(Public)
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Sponsors: Senators Martin of Guilford; and Blackmon.
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Referred to:  Government Performance Audit.
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February 17, 1993

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT TO IMPLEMENT A RECOMMENDATION OF THE GOVERNMENT PERFORMANCE AUDIT COMMITTEE TO FREEZE THE MEDICAID PRESCRIPTION DRUG DISPENSING FEE FOR THE 1993-95 BIENNIUM.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
Section 1.  The General Assembly finds that North Carolina's Medicaid prescription drug dispensing fee is the highest in the country and that it has increased by fifty percent (50%) since 1985, from three dollars and sixty-seven cents ($3.67) in 1986 to five dollars and sixty cents ($5.60) in 1992.  The General Assembly further finds that North Carolina Medicaid spent more than thirty-five million dollars ($35,000,000) in the 1992-93 fiscal year for dispensing fees alone.  The most recent increase approved by the General Assembly resulted in additional Medicaid expenditures of four million five hundred thousand dollars ($4,500,000). 
Sec. 2.  (a) Effective July 1, 1993, through June 30, 1995, the Division of Medical Assistance, Department of Human Resources, shall freeze the Medicaid prescription drug dispensing fee at its July 1992 amount of five dollars sixty cents ($5.60) and shall not pay a higher amount.
(b) It is the intent of the General Assembly to continue the freeze mandated by subsection (a) of this section through fiscal year 2002.
Sec. 3.  The base budget of the Division of Medical Assistance, Department of Human Resources, is reduced by the sum of five million dollars ($5,000,000) for the 1993-94 fiscal year and the sum of five million seven hundred thousand dollars ($5,700,000) for the 1994-95 fiscal year due to savings incurred by the implementation of this act.
Sec. 4.  It is the intent of the General Assembly to reduce the base budget of the Division of Medical Assistance, Department of Human Resources, in subsequent fiscal years due to the implementation of this act, according to the following schedule:
	Fiscal Year	Amount
1995-96	$6,500,000
1996-97	$7,400,000
1997-98	$8,400,000
1998-99	$9,500,000
1999-00	$10,900,000
2000-01	$12,400,000
2001-02	$14,100,000.
Sec. 5. This act becomes effective July 1, 1993.