This week's Advocacy Center Update details legislative work on the nation's opioid abuse problem, track and trace pilot projects, and more...

Effective March 22, 2016, generic Nasonex® (Mometasone nasal spray) became available in the market. However, Mometasone nasal spray remained Non-Formulary for Medicare Part D Covered Persons. The innovator product Nasonex ® will continue to be covered without prior approval* from the plan. Action Required If Participating Pharmacies receive a prescription for Mometasone nasal spray for a Medicare Part D Covered Person, they will need to submit brand name Nasonex ® in order to receive a paid claim. If a prescription for Mometasone nasal spray is submitted instead of brand name Nasonex ®, the claim will reject at point-of-sale (POS) with the following reject message:  NCPDP Reject Code MR: Drug Not on Formulary  Secondary Message: Nasonex = Formulary, Mometasone Nasal = NonFormulary For

OptumRx will be performing scheduled maintenance to our claim processing system on Saturday, April 23 from 9:00p.m. (PT) until 5:00 a.m. (PT) Sunday, April 24. Actual maintenance time required for this outage may be reduced, at which point OptumRx will resume processing claims and other functions earlier. Pharmacies will be unable to process claims during the scheduled outage. The Pharmacy Help Desk will not be able to answer eligibility or benefit questions during this down time. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

The Alabama State Board of Pharmacy has asked that APCI alert its state members about a string of pharmacy burglaries in southern Alabama.

This week was a busy week in the Legislature! The Senate passed the State’s Education Budget with a few changes back to the House, thus sending the Education Budget to a Conference Committee.