Hurricane Idalia: ensuring access for members 

On August 30, 2023, Hurricane Idalia made landfall in Florida. Provided are a few reminders about Prime/Magellan Rx’s standard actions in the event of major weather events or other developments that could pose significant barriers to medication access. 

Ensuring access for members
Prime/Magellan Rx has processes in place to aid members who are affected by adverse events and unexpected pharmacy closures that affect their access to medications. During any potential adverse event, Prime/Magellan Rx will: 

• Actively monitor impacted employees and will continue to meet service levels.  
• Rapidly assess client impact using zip code data to determine the affected service area(s) – this is monitored continuously (24/7). 
• Execute a Dynamic Prior Approval (DPA) early-refill override for all members in a State Governor-declared disaster area, using a standard two-week default period for the DPA. This includes notifying pharmacies within the impacted service area of the DPA put into place. 

• Notify clients of the initiated DPA activity. Clients will have the opportunity to shorten or extend the DPA period by communicating with their Health Plan Markets representative. 
• Provide DPA reporting back to clients. 

Refer to the Healthcare Ready: RxOpen site to identify pharmacy chains and local pharmacies that are closed due to adverse events. 

Meeting home delivery and specialty pharmacy needs
Regardless of which home delivery and specialty provider your plan works with, Prime/Magellan Rx and our vendors have the following safeguards in place: 

• Continuous monitoring of the adverse event to determine possible impacts to patients and shipments. 

• Contingency plans in place to provide 24/7 coverage for urgent patient needs, including pharmacist consultations, shipment to alternate locations and retail fills when and where possible. 
• Monitoring of shipments and proactive management of packages where deliveries are expected to be impacted by the adverse event. 

Prime/Magellan Rx is in regular contact with our home delivery and specialty pharmacy vendors and will provide updates as needed during adverse events. 

Reach out to your Health Plan Markets (formerly known as Client Engagement) representative if you have additional questions about Prime/Magellan Rx’s preparedness for adverse events and unexpected pharmacy closures.