Announcements | December 20, 2019

DHCS Announces Medi-Cal Rx Workgroup Membership, Stakeholder Process

This week, the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) announced its selection of 30 individuals for the Medi-Cal Rx Advisory Workgroup. Recall, Governor Gavin Newsom earlier this year issued an executive order directing various state agencies to achieve cost-savings for drug purchases made by the State of California. Under the order, DHCS is tasked with transitioning all Medi-Cal pharmacy services from managed care to fee-for-service by January 1, 2021.

The DHCS Medi-Cal Rx Advisory Workgroup will meet in-person seven times between January 2020 and April 2021 to help facilitate and further inform DHCS’ ongoing Medi-Cal Rx implementation efforts. Workgroup members represent various organizations and entities, including hospitals, clinics, health plans, counties, pharmacies, tribal health programs, consumer advocates, and others. The full workgroup membership list is available here. The workgroup will primarily focus and provide input on:

  • Roles and responsibilities of DHCS, the Medi-Cal Rx Contractor, and Medi-Cal Managed Care Plans
  • DHCS’ implementation strategies, tools, and timelines, including but not limited to, provider education and outreach and beneficiary notifications
  • Medi-Cal pharmacy policy development, which will include the scope of the carve-out, prior authorization, and utilization management protocols
  • Changes to existing Medi-Cal pharmacy committees

DHCS will also conduct three larger Medi-Cal Rx Public Forums in-person and via webinar, which will be one hour and length and provide status updates to help ensure that the broader stakeholder community is kept up to date about the Medi-Cal Rx implementation activities and timelines. DHCS will only take questions and comments from those participants attending in-person. All interested organizations and entities are invited to participate. The public forums will be held on February 18, 2020, June 17, 2020, and December 9, 2020. Additional information and reminder notices will be provided as each date nears, and a final agenda will be provided at least 10 days in advance of each meeting.

Additional information on the DHCS Medi-Cal Rx initiative is available here.