Cal. HSC § 1385.0026

This is the official text of Cal. HSC § 1385.0026, part of California’s Health and Safety Code — covers public health, hospitals, controlled substances, and environmental health standards.

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Official statutory text

(a) A pharmacy benefit manager shall not impose any requirements, conditions, or exclusions that discriminate against a nonaffiliated pharmacy in connection with dispensing drugs.

(b) Discrimination prohibited pursuant to subdivision (a) includes all of the following:

(1) Terms or conditions applied to nonaffiliated pharmacies based on their status as a nonaffiliated pharmacy.

(2) Refusing to contract with or terminating a contract with a nonaffiliated pharmacy on the basis that the pharmacy is a nonaffiliated pharmacy or for reasons other than those that apply equally to affiliated pharmacies.

(3) Retaliation against a nonaffiliated pharmacy based on its exercise of any right or remedy under this article.

(4) Engaging in an unlawful action against a covered entity, including a violation of Section 127471.

(5) Reimbursing a nonaffiliated pharmacy less for a pharmacist service than the pharmacy benefit manager would reimburse an affiliated pharmacy for the same pharmacist service.

(c) This article does not preclude a pharmacy benefit manager or a purchaser of pharmacy benefit manager services from establishing a network of contracting pharmacies.

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.