California regulators seek comments on revised drug formulary rules

Those wishing to opine on California’s upcoming drug formulary for injured workers have until 5 p.m. Aug. 2 to submit written comments, the Department of Industrial Relations’ Division of Workers’ Compensation announced on Tuesday. 

Regulators issued a modified version of the formulary Tuesday, after reviewing 119 pages of comments from the first 15-day period that ended on May 1. Tuesday’s announcement restarted the clock.

Meanwhile, the department announced in June that it would delay implementation of the formulary until Jan. 1, 2018 — one of the requests included in several comments submitted in the first round. 

The new, proposed changes include the same postponement date, along with other alterations, according to a press release. Among them: changing the “Preferred/Non-Preferred” drug designations to “Exempt/Non-Exempt” to better align with how the designations affect the prospective utilization review status of the drug; revised provisions relating to phased implementation of the formulary; deletion of provisions regarding issues that will be addressed in the utilization review regulations rather than in the formulary regulations; clarification of applicable dispute resolution procedures; and an updated drug listing and formatting changes.