Provider Alert! Inhaled Glucocorticoids and Insulin Products Return to Non-Preferred for Medicaid Members

By tcph OB/GYNs, Office Managers, Primary Care Providers, Provider Alert 0 Comments

Attention: All Providers

Effective Date: September 18, 2020

Providers should monitor the Texas Children’s Health Plan (TCHP) Provider Portal regularly for alerts and updates associated to the COVID-19 event. TCHP reserves the right to update and/or change this information without prior notice due to the evolving nature of the COVID-19 event.

Call to action: Beginning September 18, 2020 the Texas Vendor Drug Program (VDP) will restore non-preferred status to some of the inhaled glucocorticoids and insulin products. VDP temporarily removed non-preferred status from these products in April due to reported drug shortages. The decision to reverse this change was determined following verification of sufficient availability of the preferred products currently in the market. Texas Children’s Health Plan wanted to notify you in advance so that these changes do not impact the ability of your STAR and STAR Kids members to obtain their medications.

A summary of drug status for these products is as below:

Inhaled Glucocorticoids

Preferred

Non-Preferred

Asmanex (Twisthaler, HFA)

Flovent HFA inhaler

Pulmicort Respules

Alvesco inhaler

Arnuity Ellipta inhaler

budesonide suspension

Flovent Diskus

Pulmicort Flexhaler

QVAR RediHaler

Insulins

Preferred

Non-Preferred

Humalog (vial, cartridge, 100 units/ml Kwikpen)

Humalog Mix 50-50, 75-25 (vial, Kwikpen)

Humulin 70-30, N, R (vial, Kwikpen)

Lantus (vial, SoloStar)

Levemir (vial, FlexTouch)

Novolin N, R (vial, FlexPen)

Novolog (cartridge, FlexPen, vial)

Novolog Mix 70-30 (vial, FlexPen)

Admelog (vial, SoloStar)

Afrezza (cartridge, unit)

Apidra (vial, SoloStar)

Basaglar KwikPen

Fiasp (FlexTouch, vial, PenFill)

Humalog (200 units/ml KwikPen)

Insulin lispro (pen, vial)

Novolin 70-30 (vial, FlexPen)

Toujeo (Max SoloStar, SoloStar)

Tresiba (vial, FlexTouch)

Next steps for providers: If your patients switched to any of the above non-preferred products during the drug shortage from April 1, we encourage you to change them back to any of the preferred products. Providers will not be able to prescribe the listed non-preferred products without a prior authorization.

If you have any questions, please email Provider Network Management at: providerrelations@texaschildrens.org.

For access to all provider alerts, log into:
www.thecheckup.org or www.texaschildrenshealthplan.org/for-providers.

Provider Alert! Inhaled Glucocorticoids and Insulin Products Return to Non-Preferred for Medicaid Members