| For Immediate Release: May 24, 2021 Re: A.6409 (Bichotte) – An act to amend the social services law, in relation to requiring each managed care provider to annually provide each participant in its program with a written list of mail-order pharmacies with which the managed care provider has a contract for coverage of prescription drugs. This legislation, A.6409, would require Medicaid managed care organizations (Medicaid MCOs) to provide a written list of mail-order pharmacies to members on an annual basis. The New York Health Plan Association (HPA) opposes this legislation. This legislation is unnecessary. Medicaid MCOs already are required to make information about their provider networks, including available pharmacies and mail-order options, available to the enrollee in paper form upon request, as well as in electronic form. Further, although A.6409 is intended to ensure that individuals enrolled in Medicaid have updated provider lists, requiring Medicaid MCOs to print and mail a list of mail order pharmacies will not address this issue. While information about a health plan’s pharmacy network may change on occasion, health plans strive to keep this information up-to-date on their websites. Requiring printed mailings are costly to produce and distribute and would not guarantee that the information will have changed by the time the member has received it. For all these reasons, HPA opposes A.6409. | 
