(b)

1. (1) To ensure that the health needs of Medi-Cal beneficiaries are met, the department shall, when evaluating a decision to execute a contract, and when evaluating enteral nutrition products for retention on, addition to, or deletion from, the list of enteral nutrition products, consider all of the following criteria:

   1. (A) The safety of the product.
   2. (B) The effectiveness of the product.
   3. (C) The essential need for the product.
   4. (D) The potential for misuse of the product.
   5. (E) The immediate or long-term cost effectiveness of the product.
2. (2) The deficiency of a product when measured by one of the criteria specified in paragraph (1) may be sufficient to support a decision that the product should be deleted from, should not be added to, or should not be retained on, the list of medical supplies. However, the superiority of a product under one criterion may be sufficient to warrant the addition or retention of the product, notwithstanding a deficiency in another criterion.

(k)

1. (1) Manufacturers shall calculate and pay interest on late or unpaid rebates.
2. (2) Interest pursuant to paragraph (1) shall begin accruing 38 calendar days from the date of mailing of the quarterly invoice, including supporting utilization data sent to the manufacturer. Interest shall continue to accrue until the date of mailing of the manufacturer’s payment.
3. (3) Interest rates and calculations pursuant to paragraph (1) shall be identical and shall be equal to the drug rebate interest rates as determined by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Medicaid Drug Rebate Program Releases or regulations.
4. (4) If the date of mailing of a state rebate payment is 69 days or more from the date of mailing of the invoice, including supporting utilization data sent to the manufacturer, the interest rate shall be as specified in paragraph (3), however the interest rate shall be increased by 10 percentage points.