State Medicaid Adoption Of Preferred Drug Lists: An OPEN MINDS Market Intelligence Report

Payers and health plans use a number of tactics to control pharmacy benefit costs including preferred drug lists (PDLs), prior authorization, copayments, etc. A recent trend has been the adoption of uniform PDLs by state Medicaid programs. When a state uses a uniform PDL, the state is responsible for designing and setting the PDL for all the Medicaid health plans as well as the fee-for-service program. Uniform PDLs ensure that all consumers have access to the same set of prescription drugs and minimize differences between health plans. Often, a variety of names are used to describe this practice . . .