Pharmacists in Delaware provide some of the same medical services as physicians, advance practice registered nurses, and physician assistants, including immunizations. The General Assembly has recently added to the services that pharmacists may provide, including prescribing birth control, testing and treating for a variety of conditions, and prescribing pre-exposure and post-exposure HIV prophylaxis. However, health insurance plans do not currently recognize pharmacists as a provider type that may seek reimbursement for these services, despite already providing coverage for the same services if they were obtained from other providers. This could lead to many pharmacists not providing such expanded services due to the lack of insurance coverage.
This Act requires health insurance providers to provide the same reimbursement to pharmacists that is already provided other providers performing the same services at the same rates as advance practice registered nurses and physician assistants.
This bill also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.