§2042. Powers and duties of the board
The board has the following powers and duties.
[PL 2025, c. 530, §5 (NEW).]
1.
Prescription drug spending targets.
[PL 2025, c. 530, §5 (RP).]
1-A.
Strategies to reduce costs of prescription drugs.
The board shall:
A.
Review prescription drug spending and utilization data to identify causes of high spending or rising spending affecting public payors and private payors and impacting consumers;
[PL 2025, c. 530, §5 (NEW).]
B.
Solicit public input to identify cost-related barriers to accessing prescription drugs; and
[PL 2025, c. 530, §5 (NEW).]
C.
Assess strategies to reduce the cost of prescription drugs and reduce the rate of growth in prescription drug spending and to reduce cost barriers for consumers. The review of strategies must include consideration of the strategies' likely impact on consumers and overall health care costs and the feasibility of implementing such strategies. At a minimum, the board shall assess the following strategies:
[PL 2025, c. 530, §5 (NEW).]
(1)
Empowering the board to assess the affordability of drugs and to establish upper payment limits;
(2)
Implementing reference-based pricing, including reviewing potential savings for the state employee group health plan under Title 5, section 285 by implementing reference-based pricing for the first 10 drugs negotiated under the Medicare drug price negotiation program established in United States Public Law 117-169 (August 16, 2022);
(3)
Recommending annual spending targets for prescription drugs for public payors and implementing strategies for the purchase of prescription drugs by public payors in order to meet those annual spending targets, including group purchasing and formulary alignment. For the purposes of this subsection, the term "public payor" means any division of state, county or municipal government that administers a health plan for employees of that division of state, county or municipal government or an association of state, county or municipal employers that administers a health plan for its employees, except for the MaineCare program;
(4)
Recommending annual spending targets for prescription drugs that could be applied to one or more segments of the state-regulated commercial insurance market and implementing strategies to meet those annual spending targets;
(5)
Implementing transparency requirements and regulation of supply chain entities, including, but not limited to, pharmacy benefits managers, including regarding the role of discounts and rebates in prescription drug costs;
(6)
Implementing strategies to reduce out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs through the regulation of insurance and the rate review process of the Department of Professional and Financial Regulation, Bureau of Insurance;
(7)
Developing opportunities for engagement with providers and other health care professionals to disseminate information about prescription drug costs and pricing; and
(8)
Aligning the payment for prescription drugs with actual drug acquisition costs.
[PL 2025, c. 530, §5 (NEW).]
1-B.
Other states' experiences.
To accomplish the duties under subsection 1‑A, the board shall consider and review the experiences of other states, including, but not limited to, the role of prescription drug affordability boards established in other states that are authorized to assess affordability of prescription drugs and to establish upper payment limits or reference-based pricing requirements and their regulation of pharmacy benefits managers.
[PL 2025, c. 530, §5 (NEW).]
2.
Prescription drug spending data.
The board may consider the following prescription drug spending data to accomplish its duties under this section:
A.
[PL 2025, c. 530, §5 (RP).]
B.
Data compiled by the Maine Health Data Organization under Title 22, chapter 1683; and
[PL 2025, c. 530, §5 (AMD).]
C.
Publicly available data that is available for purchase or for free.
[PL 2025, c. 530, §5 (NEW).]
If there is additional data required by the board and its staff that is not already available pursuant to paragraphs B and C, the board may recommend that the Maine Health Data Organization adopt rules to collect additional prescription drug spending data, including data relating to the prescription drugs common to each formulary. Prescription drug spending data provided to the board and its staff under this subsection is confidential to the same extent it is confidential while in the custody of the entity that provided the data to the board.
[PL 2025, c. 530, §5 (AMD).]
3.
Recommendations.
[PL 2025, c. 530, §5 (RP).]
4.
Report.
The board shall report any recommendations regarding strategies to reduce the cost of prescription drugs, other states' experiences and prescription drug spending data to the joint standing committee of the Legislature having jurisdiction over health coverage and insurance matters no later than January 30th annually. The joint standing committee may report out legislation based upon the report.
[PL 2025, c. 530, §5 (AMD).]
5.
Rulemaking.
The board may adopt rules to carry out the purposes of this chapter. Rules adopted pursuant to this subsection are routine technical rules as defined by chapter 375, subchapter 2‑A.
[PL 2025, c. 530, §5 (NEW).]
SECTION HISTORY
PL 2019, c. 471, §1 (NEW). PL 2019, c. 472, §1 (NEW). PL 2021, c. 293, Pt. A, §5 (RPR). PL 2025, c. 530, §5 (AMD).