GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

SESSION 1997

H	1 

HOUSE BILL 682

Short Title:  Home Care/Pharmacy Services.	(Public)

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Sponsors: Representatives Gardner; and Sexton.

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Referred to:  Human Resources.

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March 31, 1997

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT TO INCLUDE HOME CARE AGENCIES UNDER THE PHARMACY OF CHOICE LAW WHEN THEY ARE PROVIDING NURSING INFUSION SERVICES.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
Section 1.  G.S. 58-51-37(a) reads as rewritten:
"(a)	This section shall apply to all health benefit plans providing pharmaceutical services benefits, including prescription drugs, to any resident of North Carolina.  This section shall also apply to insurance companies and health maintenance organizations that provide or administer coverages and benefits for prescription drugs.  This section shall not apply to any entity that has its own facility, employs or contracts with physicians, pharmacists, nurses, and other health care personnel, and that dispenses prescription drugs from its own pharmacy to its employees and to enrollees of its health benefit plan; provided, however, this section shall apply to an entity otherwise excluded that contracts with an outside pharmacy or group of pharmacies to provide prescription drugs and services.  This section shall not apply to any federal program, clinical trial program, hospital or other health care facility licensed pursuant to Chapter 131E or Chapter 122C of the General Statutes, when dispensing prescription drugs to its patients, except that this section shall apply to licensed home care agencies when they are providing infusion nursing services under Part C of Article 6 of Chapter 131E of the General Statutes."
Section 2.  This act applies to all health benefit plans that are delivered, issued for delivery, or renewed on and after October 1, 1997.  For the purposes of this act, renewal of a health benefit plan is presumed to occur on each anniversary of the date on which coverage was first effective on the person or persons covered by the health benefit plan.
Section 3. This act is effective when it becomes law.