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