Medication and Patient Safety Act of 2022.

Existing law, the Knox-Keene Health Care Service Plan Act of 1975, provides for the licensure and regulation of health care service plans by the Department of Managed Health Care, and makes a willful violation of the act a crime. Existing law provides for the regulation of health insurers by the Department of Insurance. Existing law requires a health care service plan contract or health insurance policy that provides coverage for outpatient prescription drugs to cover medically necessary prescription drugs. This bill would prohibit a health care service plan or health insurer, or its designee, from requiring a vendor to dispense an infused or injected medication directly to a patient with the intent that the patient will transport the medication to a health care provider for administration. The bill would authorize a plan or insurer, or its designee, to arrange for an infused or injected medication to be administered in an enrollee's or insured's home when the treating health care provider and patient determine home administration is in the best interest of the patient. The bill would prohibit a plan or insurer, or its designee, from requiring an infused or injected medication to be supplied by a vendor specified by the plan or insurer, or its designee, as a condition of coverage, unless specified criteria are met. Because a willful violation of the bill's requirements relative to health care service plans would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.