White Bagging

White bagging refers to the practice of a patient purchasing a drug from a specialty pharmacy and the specialty pharmacy shipping the drug to a provider office for administration. If an insurer requires a patient to white bag, it is generally from a specialty pharmacy they are affiliated with.

Requiring a patient to white bag circumvents the traditional “buy-and-bill” model infusion providers rely on. Buy-and-bill allows infusion centers to manage their own drug inventory and bill for drugs administered to patients. Infusion providers have historically been able to offset the cost of administering complex medications through drug margins generated under the buy-and-bill model. Under a white bagging mandate, infusion providers go without proper reimbursement.

Anti-white bagging legislation has restricted or prohibited the requirement that patients obtain their drugs from a specialty pharmacy selected by their insurance company. Oftentimes, these laws will prevent insurance companies from conditioning coverage on the use of their specialty pharmacy.