Rep. Marilyn Avila, R-Wake, argued Tuesday morning that both PLEs and MCOs should be able to compete for the contracts.
“The state’s responsibility is to determine what we need from these organizations, not to prescribe how they are set up,” Avila said. “We are prescribing, and our pharmacy degree in the General Assembly is lacking sometimes in the success of our prescriptions. Let people who know what they’re doing come in, rather than saying, ‘It’s got to be this way, and it’s the only way it can be.'”
Provider groups have long argued that they will be underbid by the commercial MCOs, which they say will then cut services to make a profit.