Florida is serious about importation

Florida submitted a high-level plan to the Trump administration on Friday that details how it would import drugs from Canada. The basics: Florida wants to contract with a drug wholesaler that would oversee the day-to-day operations of importing drugs for state programs, like Medicaid. They’d also test and repackage the drugs to meet U.S. safety and labeling requirements — but despite those costs, the state thinks it’d save $150 million annually. 

There’s a good reason to pay attention to this one: Florida’s a lot farther along than every other state when it comes to this issue. The Trump administration only said in July that it’s open to the idea of importing from Canada; it’s still working on its own regulations about how exactly that will work. Florida still needs HHS approval, and the agency could certainly wait until it works out its own regulations to give it, but an HHS spokesperson told STAT Friday that “all state proposals are taken seriously by the department.”