Patient Steering Through White Bagging Mandates

What is it?

White bagging is a new tactic by health insurers requiring certain medications to be purchased through specialty pharmacies, often owned by the insurance company, with no input from the physician, and then the PBM ships those drugs to the doctor instead of using the drugs doctors have on hand.

What this means for patients:

When health insurance companies require specialty drugs to be purchased only from insured owned specialty pharmacies, clinicians cannot quickly adjust treatments based on the patient’s immediate needs. This steering tactic creates an unnecessary risk for patients by sourcing drugs outside the normal supply chain and quality control processes, causing patient appointments to be canceled due to shipping problems and creates delays in medication administration, which can significantly affect patient health.

FSR Policy:

Health insurance companies in Florida should not be allowed to steer patients through payer mandated “white bagging” policies to specialty pharmacies owned by insurance companies. This process puts insurance company profits above patient safety and choice.