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A250, R278, S1269
STATUS INFORMATION
General Bill
Sponsors: Senators Peeler and Alexander
Document Path: l:\council\bills\nbd\12165ac12.docx
Companion/Similar bill(s): 5103
Introduced in the Senate on February 29, 2012
Introduced in the House on April 19, 2012
Last Amended on May 29, 2012
Passed by the General Assembly on June 7, 2012
Governor's Action: June 18, 2012, Signed
Summary: Pharmacy Audit Rights
HISTORY OF LEGISLATIVE ACTIONS
Date Body Action Description with journal page number
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2/29/2012 Senate Introduced and read first time (Senate Journal-page 6)
2/29/2012 Senate Referred to Committee on Medical Affairs
(Senate Journal-page 6)
3/29/2012 Senate Committee report: Favorable with amendment Medical
Affairs (Senate Journal-page 12)
3/30/2012 Scrivener's error corrected
4/10/2012 Senate Committee Amendment Amended (Senate Journal-page 20)
4/12/2012 Senate Committee Amendment Adopted (Senate Journal-page 30)
4/17/2012 Scrivener's error corrected
4/17/2012 Senate Read second time (Senate Journal-page 31)
4/17/2012 Senate Roll call Ayes-36 Nays-0 (Senate Journal-page 31)
4/18/2012 Senate Read third time and sent to House
(Senate Journal-page 21)
4/19/2012 House Introduced and read first time (House Journal-page 15)
4/19/2012 House Referred to Committee on Labor, Commerce and Industry
(House Journal-page 15)
5/17/2012 House Committee report: Favorable with amendment Labor,
Commerce and Industry (House Journal-page 7)
5/23/2012 House Debate adjourned until Thur., 05-24-12
(House Journal-page 31)
5/24/2012 House Debate adjourned until Tues.,05-29-12
(House Journal-page 120)
5/29/2012 House Amended (House Journal-page 10)
5/29/2012 House Read second time (House Journal-page 10)
5/29/2012 House Roll call Yeas-108 Nays-0 (House Journal-page 15)
5/30/2012 House Debate adjourned until Thur., 05-31-12
(House Journal-page 15)
5/31/2012 House Read third time and returned to Senate with amendments
(House Journal-page 21)
6/7/2012 Senate Concurred in House amendment and enrolled
(Senate Journal-page 151)
6/7/2012 Senate Roll call Ayes-36 Nays-0 (Senate Journal-page 151)
6/12/2012 Ratified R 278
6/18/2012 Signed By Governor
6/25/2012 Effective date 01/01/13
6/27/2012 Act No. 250
View the latest legislative information at the LPITS web site
VERSIONS OF THIS BILL
2/29/2012
3/29/2012
3/30/2012
4/12/2012
4/17/2012
5/17/2012
5/29/2012
(A250, R278, S1269)
AN ACT TO AMEND THE CODE OF LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976, BY ADDING ARTICLE 18 TO CHAPTER 71, TITLE 38 SO AS TO PROVIDE THE RIGHTS OF A PHARMACY WHEN UNDERGOING AN AUDIT CONDUCTED BY A MANAGED CARE COMPANY, INSURANCE COMPANY, THIRD-PARTY PAYER, OR AN ENTITY RESPONSIBLE FOR PAYMENT OF CLAIMS FOR HEALTH CARE SERVICES; TO REQUIRE THE AUDITING ENTITY TO ESTABLISH AN APPEALS PROCESS; TO PROVIDE FOR THE RECOUPMENT OF FUNDS UNDER CERTAIN CIRCUMSTANCES; AND TO EXEMPT SPECIFIC AUDITS, REVIEWS, AND INVESTIGATIONS.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:
Pharmacy Audit Rights
SECTION 1. Chapter 71, Title 38 of the 1976 Code is amended by adding:
Section 38-71-1810.(A) For the purposes of this article:
(1) 'Insurer' means an entity that provides health insurance coverage in this State as defined in Section 38-71-670(7) and Section 38-71-840(16).
(2) 'Responsible party' means the entity responsible for payment of claims for health care services other than:
(a) the individual to whom the health care services were rendered; or
(b) that individual's guardian or legal representative.
(3) 'Audit' means an evaluation, investigation, or review of claims paid to a pharmacy that takes place at the pharmacy location and does not include review of claims or claims payments that an insurer conducts as a normal course of business.
(4) 'Abuse' means any practice that:
(a)(i) is inconsistent with sound fiscal or business practices; or
(ii) fails to meet professionally recognized standards for pharmacy services; and
(b) directly or indirectly causes financial loss to a responsible party.
(B) If a managed care organization, insurer, third-party payor, or any entity that represents a responsible party conducts an audit of the records of a pharmacy, then, with respect to this audit, the pharmacy has a right to:
(1) have at least fourteen days' advance notice of the initial audit for each audit cycle with no audit to be initiated or scheduled during the first five days of any month without the express consent of the pharmacy, which shall cooperate with the auditor to establish an alternate date if the audit would fall within the excluded days;
(2) have an audit that involves clinical judgment be conducted with a pharmacist who is licensed and employed by or working under contract with the auditing entity;
(3) not have clerical or record-keeping errors, including typographical errors, scrivener's errors and computer errors, on a required document or record considered fraudulent in the absence of any other evidence; however, the provisions of this item do not prohibit recoupment of fraudulent payments;
(4) have, if required under the terms of the contract with the auditing entity, the auditing entity to provide the pharmacy, upon request, all records related to the audit in an electronic format or contained in digital media;
(5) have the properly documented records of a hospital or of a person authorized to prescribe controlled substances for the purpose of providing medical or pharmaceutical care for their patients transmitted by any means of communication approved by the auditing entity in order to validate a pharmacy record with respect to a prescription or refill for a controlled substance or narcotic drug pursuant to federal and state regulations;
(6) have a projection of an overpayment or underpayment based on either the number of patients served with a similar diagnosis or the number of similar prescription orders or refills for similar drugs; however, the provisions of this item do not prohibit recoupments of actual overpayments unless the projection for overpayment or underpayment is part of a settlement by the pharmacy;
(7) be free of recoupments based on either of the following subitems unless defined within the billing, submission, or audit requirements set forth in the pharmacy provider manual not inconsistent with current State Board of Pharmacy Regulations, except for cases of Food and Drug Administration regulation or drug manufacturer safety programs in accordance with federal or state regulations:
(a) documentation requirements in addition to, or exceeding requirements for, creating or maintaining documentation prescribed by the State Board of Pharmacy;
(b) a requirement that a pharmacy or pharmacist perform a professional duty in addition to, or exceeding, professional duties prescribed by the State Board of Pharmacy unless otherwise agreed to by contract with the auditing entity;
(8) be subject, so long as a claim is made within the contractual claim submission time period, to recoupment only following the correction of a claim and to have recoupment limited to amounts paid in excess of amounts payable under the corrected claim unless a prescription error occurs. For purposes of this subsection, a prescription error includes, but is not limited to, wrong drug, wrong strength, wrong dose, or wrong patient;
(9) be subject to reversals of approval, except for Medicare claims, for drug, prescriber, or patient eligibility upon adjudication of a claim only in cases in which the pharmacy obtained the adjudication by fraud or misrepresentation of claim elements;
(10) be audited under the same standards and parameters as other similarly situated pharmacies audited by the same entity;
(11) have at least thirty days following receipt of the preliminary audit report to produce documentation to address any discrepancy found during an audit;
(12) have the period covered by an audit limited to twenty-four months from the date a claim was submitted to, or adjudicated by, a managed care organization, an insurer, a third-party payor, or an entity that represents responsible parties, unless a longer period is permitted by or under federal law;
(13) have the preliminary audit report delivered to the pharmacy within one hundred twenty days after conclusion of the audit;
(14) have a final audit report delivered to the pharmacy within ninety days after the end of the appeals period; and
(15) not have the accounting practice of extrapolation used in calculating recoupments or penalties for audits, unless otherwise required by federal requirements or federal plans.
(C) Notwithstanding Section 38-71-1840, the auditing entity shall provide the pharmacy, if requested, a masked list that provides a prescription number range the auditing entity is seeking to audit.
Section 38-71-1820.(A) Each entity that conducts an audit of a pharmacy shall establish an appeals process under which a pharmacy may appeal an unfavorable preliminary audit report to the entity.
(B) If, following the appeal, the entity finds that an unfavorable audit report or any portion of the unfavorable audit report is unsubstantiated, the entity shall dismiss the unsubstantiated portion of the audit report without any further proceedings.
(C) Each entity conducting an audit shall provide a copy, if required under the terms of the contract with the responsible party, of the audit findings to the plan sponsor after completion of any appeals process.
Section 38-71-1830.(A) Recoupments of any funds disputed on the basis of an audit must occur only after final internal disposition of the audit, including the appeals process as provided for in Section 38-71-1820, unless fraud or misrepresentation is reasonably suspected.
(B) Recoupment on an audit must be refunded to the responsible party as contractually agreed upon by the parties involved in the audit.
(C) The entity conducting the audit may charge or assess the responsible party, directly or indirectly, based on amounts recouped if both of the following conditions are met:
(1) the responsible party or payor and the entity conducting the audit have entered into a contract that explicitly states the percentage charge or assessment to the responsible party; and
(2) a commission or other payment to an agent or employee of the entity conducting the audit is not based, directly or indirectly, on amounts recouped.
Section 38-71-1840. The provisions of this article do not apply to an audit, review, or investigation:
(1) that involves alleged insurance fraud or abuse, Medicare fraud or abuse, or other fraud or misrepresentation; or
(2) conducted by or on the behalf of the Department of Health and Human Services in the performance of its duties in administering Medicaid under Titles XIX and XXI of the Social Security Act."
Severability
SECTION 2. If any section, subsection, paragraph, subparagraph, sentence, clause, phrase, or word of this act is for any reason held to be unconstitutional or invalid, such holding shall not affect the constitutionality or validity of the remaining portions of this act, the General Assembly hereby declaring that it would have passed this act, and each and every section, subsection, paragraph, subparagraph, sentence, clause, phrase, and word thereof, irrespective of the fact that any one or more other sections, subsections, paragraphs, subparagraphs, sentences, clauses, phrases, or words hereof may be declared to be unconstitutional, invalid, or otherwise ineffective.
Time effective
SECTION 3. This act takes effect January 1, 2013.
Ratified the 12th day of June, 2012.
Approved the 18th day of June, 2012.
This web page was last updated on Tuesday, December 10, 2013 at 10:09 A.M.