A Medicaid managed care organization or pharmacy benefit manager, as applicable, under the organization’s pharmacy benefit plan required by § 540.0273 in a contract to which this subchapter applies:
(1) may not require a prior authorization, other than a clinical prior authorization or a prior authorization the commission imposes to minimize the opportunity for fraud, waste, or abuse, for or impose any other barriers to a drug that is prescribed to a child enrolled in the STAR Kids managed care program for a particular disease or treatment and that is on the vendor drug program formulary or require additional prior authorization for a drug included in the preferred drug list the commission adopts under Subchapter E, Chapter 549;
(2) must provide continued access to a drug prescribed to a child enrolled in the STAR Kids managed care program, regardless of whether the drug is on the vendor drug program formulary or, if applicable on or after August 31, 2023, the organization’s formulary;
(3) may not use a protocol that requires a child enrolled in the STAR Kids managed care program to use a prescription drug or sequence of prescription drugs other than the drug the child’s physician recommends for the child’s treatment before the organization will cover the recommended drug; and
(4) must pay liquidated damages to the commission for each failure, as the commission determines, to comply with this section in an amount that is a reasonable forecast of the damages caused by the noncompliance.

Text of section effective on April 01, 2025