The Board of Pharmacy has announced that Massachusetts pharmacists may provide patients of abruptly-closed Compass Medical practices with up to 30-days of certain medications even if they do not have remaining refills on their prescriptions. The southeastern Massachusetts medical clinic group shuttered suddenly last week, leaving tens of thousands of patients in the lurch and in need of alternate care arrangements. Under a policy adopted in April, state pharmacy regulators said, pharmacists are allowed to dispense Schedule VI medications that do not require a report to the state Prescription Monitoring Program without a refill order as a way of giving patients the time to find another prescriber. The board’s notice specified that federally controlled substances and gabapentin cannot be provided.
Also in Massachusetts, MassHealth announced in its Pharmacy Claims Processing Update, effective June 5, 2023, MassHealth Members who have no history of a paid MassHealth claim for an opioid in the past 90 days will be limited to a seven-day supply for their first fill with an exception. Please see details in the “Pharmacy Facts”.
For more information, please contact NACDS’ Ben Pearlman at 617-515-2603.