SENATE, No. 649

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

INTRODUCED FEBRUARY 5, 1996

By Senator LaROSSA

An Act concerning the purchase of prescription drugs for use at certain State facilities and supplementing Title 30 of the Revised Statutes.

    Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

    1. The Commissioner of Human Services shall contract with one or more manufacturers of prescription drug products, as necessary, to purchase prescription drugs for use at State facilities and institutions designated by the commissioner.

    To the extent possible, the commissioner shall contract for prescription drug products in unit dose form. Such prescription drug products may be delivered directly to State facilities and institutions or to a vendor designated by the commissioner. If a prescription drug product is not available in unit dose form, the commissioner shall contract with the manufacturer to purchase the drug product in bulk form and shall require that the drug product be delivered to a vendor designated by the commissioner to be repackaged into unit dose form for use at the designated State facilities and institutions.

    The commissioner, with the approval of the Division of Purchase and Property in the Department of the Treasury, may utilize any existing State contract for the purchase of prescription drug products to carry out the purposes of this act.

    2. This act shall take effect one year after the date of enactment, however, prior to the effective date, the department may take such actions as may be necessary to effectuate the purposes of this act.

STATEMENT

    This bill directs the Commissioner of Human Services to purchase prescription drugs for use at designated State facilities and institutions directly from the manufacturer. By directly purchasing prescription drugs, the department should realize significant savings when compared to the current method of providing prescription drugs to patients at certain State facilities. Currently, the department contracts with a vendor who purchases prescription drugs from a manufacturer or distributor and may add a mark-up to his price, and then repackages the drugs into a unit dose form which is distributed to State facilities and institutions.

Requires DHS to directly purchase prescription drugs from manufacturers or distributors for use at certain State facilities.