Update to Prime’s FCC Announcement

On July 19, 2023, Prime provided information regarding new Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) requirements from the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) regarding healthcare related calls to residential phone numbers using an autodialer and/or prerecorded message. Historically, Prime has relied on Clients to provide “prior express consent” from members prior to executing autodialer and/or prerecorded message campaigns on the Client’s behalf.

Recently, certain Clients have expressed uncertainty that the “prior express consent” obtained would meet TCPA requirements.  In addition, a separate campaign (Clinical Review prior authorization (PA) notifications), which is also subject to TCPA requirements, has since been identified.

As a result, Prime has reached out to Clients’ Privacy departments to better understand how member consent is obtained, and if Prime can rely upon that consent.

Out of an abundance of caution the Medication Therapy Management (MTM), Missed Refill, and PA notification call and/or text campaigns have been temporarily paused. Prime will perform outreach to members in the following manner while such campaigns are paused:

• Missed Refill: All members that would have received a call or text will receive a member letter instead.
• MTM: Prime and its vendor partners will continue to make live telephonic outreach to enrollees eligible for medication therapy management support.
• Clinical Review PA Notifications: All members will continue to receive written notification of prior authorization status. All live telephonic outreach of notifications that are required by CMS will remain unchanged.

There is ongoing collaboration among internal stakeholders to ensure Prime’s compliance if the “prior express consent” obtained by Clients does not meet TCPA requirements. We remain committed to complying with TCPA and enabling our Clients’ compliance with these regulatory changes.

Please note that not all Clients have Prime perform these call and/or text campaigns on their behalf. If you have any questions around whether Prime performs these services, please reach out to your Health Plan Market representative for further discussion.

Please contact Prime’s Privacy team if you have further questions regarding this announcement: privacy@primetherapeutics.com.