California

The May 2025 issue of the Board of Pharmacy's newsletter, The Script, is now published online. The newsletter includes information on the following: 

• New PIC training online seminar 

• Ensuring consumers receive medication (BPC 733) 

• Online portal for drug thefts and loss 

• SB 339: emergency to permanent regulation 

• How to support future licensees through donating to a scholarship fund 

• Wholesaler Thresholds 

• Becoming an inspector 

• CURES fee increase 

• Tribal health professionals' exemptions 

Previous newsletters can also be viewed and downloaded. Go to the "Quick Hits" column at www.pharmacy.ca.gov and click on The Script-Archive to find electronic issues of The Script published since October 1998. 

Also in California, the Board of Pharmacy published an update on medication error reporting.  Business and Professions Code (BPC) section 4113.1 establishes requirements for a community pharmacy to report medication errors to an entity approved by the Board. The statute requiring medication error reporting can be viewed here:  BPC section 4113.1. In September 2024, the Board approved the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP), an ECRI Company, as the entity to receive and review medication error reports under BPC section 4113.1. 

Pursuant to BPC section 4113.1, "community pharmacy" includes any pharmacy that dispenses medication to an outpatient, including both resident (PHY and PHE) and nonresident (NRP) pharmacies, but does not include facilities of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Additionally, outpatient hospital pharmacies are not required to report a medication error under BPC section 4113.1 if the error meets the requirements of an adverse event that has been reported to the State Department of Public Health pursuant to section 1279.1 of the Health and Safety Code. 

A community pharmacy shall submit the report no later than 14 days after the date of the error's discovery. The community pharmacy shall maintain records demonstrating compliance with this requirement for three years and shall make these records immediately available at the request of a Board of Pharmacy inspector. 

ISMP, as the Board-approved entity, sent a postcard to community pharmacy licensees the week of April 21 with information about how to register with ISMP's California medication error reporting program. Registration can be completed using this website: https://mederrors.ismp.org/. If you experience any technical issues when signing up for California's medication error reporting program through ISMP, please email clientservices@ecri.org. Licensees are encouraged to register by May 24.  The online reporting system will be available to submit reports in early June 2025. You will receive a follow-up email from ISMP in early June 2025 with a link to the user registration page of the online reporting system. 

FAQs regarding medication error reporting are available online.  

Finally in California, the Department of Health Care Service posted the following weekly notices, alerts, and monthly bulletin on the Medi-Cal Rx Web Portal.  

• Medi-Cal Rx Weekly Wrap-up for April 25-May1 

• Updates to the List of Contracted COVID-19 Antigen Tests, Effective June 1, 2025 

• Medi-Cal Rx Monthly Bulletin for May 

• Changes to the Medi-Cal Rx Contract Drugs List 

• Changes to the Medi-Cal Rx Pharmacy Reimbursable Physician Administered Drugs 

• Changes to the Medi-Cal Rx Family Planning, Access, Care and Treatment Pharmacy Formulary 

• Updates to the Medi-Cal Rx Provider Manual 

• Now Active: Completion of the Pediatric Integration of Members 21 Years of Age and Younger 

• Medi-Cal Rx Weekly Wrap-up for April 18-24 

• Updated COVID-19 Vaccine Reimbursement Rates 

• April 18, 2025, Provider Payment Delayed 

• 90-Day Countdown: NCPDP Field 426-DQ Usual and Customary Charge Requirement 

• Medi-Cal Rx Weekly Wrap-up for April 11-17 

• Medi-Cal Drug Use Review Board Meeting Update 

• Medi-Cal Rx Secured Provider Portal Password Reminders 

• Two-Week Countdown: Completion of Pediatric Integration of Members 21 Years of Age and Younger 

• Reminder: 340B Drug Price Program 

• Medi-Cal Rx Weekly Wrap-up for April 4-10 

• Changes to the Medi-Cal Rx Contract Drugs List – Authorized Drug Manufacturer Labeler Codes 

• Pediatric Integration: Most Common Claim Reject Codes 

• Identifying Pediatric Claims for Proactive Prior Authorization 

• Medi-Cal Rx Weekly Wrap-up for March 28-April 3 

For more information, contact NACDS’ Sandra Guckian at 703-774-4801.