LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Arkansas Legislative Council members signed off on several measures Friday in a committee meeting – impacting state prisons, Governor Sarah Sanders, and pharmacy owners & pharmacy benefit managers.
Despite some pushback from lawmakers earlier in the week over the procurement process the Department of Corrections used to accept a $1.5 billion medical contract with Wellpath LLC, the funding request was approved by the ALC.
However, legislators were adamant that in the future, the DOC and other state agencies using this procurement process will need to use a different method when deciding on contract bids; one that takes the state’s money into consideration much sooner.
Secretary of Corrections Lindsay Wallace told legislators earlier in the week that the process the DOC used did not look at the price of the bids they were deciding between until they were down to the final three, based on a technical scoring system.
Arkansas Legislative Council moves to fine Pharmacy Benefit Managers in emergency rule