Medication Access in Emergencies Act of 2020

I 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. R. 6193 To amend title XXVII of the Public Health Service Act to require group health plans and health insurance issuers offering group or individual health insurance coverage to provide benefits under such plan or such coverage for a 30-day refill of prescription drugs to individuals who reside in emergency areas during emergency periods. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES MARCH 11, 2020 Mr. PAPPAS (for himself and Mr. ALLRED) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce A BILL To amend title XXVII of the Public Health Service Act to require group health plans and health insurance issuers offering group or individual health insurance cov- erage to provide benefits under such plan or such cov- erage for a 30-day refill of prescription drugs to individ- uals who reside in emergency areas during emergency periods. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Medication Access in 4 Emergencies Act of 2020’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:06 Mar 18, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6193.IH H6193 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 6193 IH SEC. 2. REQUIRING COVERAGE OF PRESCRIPTION DRUG 1 REFILLS DURING EMERGENCIES. 2 Subpart II of part A of title XXVII of the Public 3 Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 300gg–11 et seq.) is 4 amended by adding at the end the following new section: 5 ‘‘SEC. 2730. COVERAGE OF PRESCRIPTION DRUG REFILLS 6 DURING AN EMERGENCY. 7 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—A group health plan, and a 8 health insurance issuer offering group or individual health 9 insurance coverage, shall, in the case of an individual with 10 a prescription for a drug for which benefits are available 11 under such plan or such coverage who is enrolled under 12 such plan or such coverage and who resides in an emer- 13 gency area during an emergency period, waive, during 14 such period and with respect to such individual, any time 15 restrictions under such plan or coverage on any authorized 16 refills for such drug to the extent necessary to permit such 17 individual to receive a 30-day supply of such drug in ad- 18 vance of when such supply would have otherwise been per- 19 mitted under such plan or coverage. 20 ‘‘(b) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of subsection (a), 21 the terms ‘emergency area’ and ‘emergency period’ have 22 the meanings given such terms in section 1135(g) of the 23 Social Security Act.’’. 24 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:06 Mar 18, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H6193.IH H6193 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS