Budget Bill Limits Repackaged Drug Prices, Physician Dispensing

A provision of the compromise budget bill passed by both houses of the North Carolina General Assembly late last week contains a provision that will limit the cost of drugs dispensed by physicians to 95% of the average wholesale price and prohibit doctors from dispensing more than a five-day supply of narcotics to injured workers. Gov. Pat McCrory has already said that he will sign the measure, Senate Bill 744. The provisions to curb physician dispensing were welcomed by pharmacy benefit managers with about the same intensity that other parts of the budget – which set term limits for f...