On May 25, 2021, Aimed Alliance and 19 other patient advocacy groups and health professional organizations sent a letter to members of the Louisiana House of Representatives in opposition to SB 181, which would allow health plans to engage in nonmedical switching of stable patients. The bill allows plans to drop medications or increase out-of-pocket costs after patients are already locked in for a plan year. Plan modifications are tied to drug price increases that the plan may already have known about before the plan year has started. Additionally, the language creates conflict, or at the very least, ambiguity with Louisiana’s current nonmedical switching law. While SB 181 does not amend the nonmedical switching statute, the language implies that SB 181 is applicable to stable patients since the bill contains a 30-day notice requirement. Yet, notice is only relevant to stable patients. Read our letter here.
Last Updated on May 25, 2021 by Aimed Alliance
