Despite efforts by NACDS, the Louisiana Alliance of Retail Pharmacy (LARP), chain pharmacy lobbyists, and quick responses from  our Louisiana pharmacists via  the RxIMPACT Alerts, SB 51 failed to garner 20 votes after it was amended on the Senate floor to apply only to COVID vaccines. SB 51, sponsored by Senator Regina Ashford Barrow (D), would have lowered the age for pharmacists to provide childhood vaccinations without prescription order to 3 and order. NACDS will continue to work on this issue in the upcoming legislative session in efforts to align with the authority granted under the HHS PREP Act declaration.

Also in Louisiana. SB 63, also sponsored by Sen. Barrow, encountered strong opposition from the medical community at the Senate Health and Welfare Committee. SB 63 would have allowed pharmacies that do screenings using CLIA-waived tests to provide treatment based on positive test results. The bill would have provided treatment or therapy for HIV, which includes an HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis, also known as PrEP, or an HIV Post-Exposure Prophylaxis, also known as PEP. Due to such strong opposition, the bill was pulled, and discussions focused on convening a study committee to work out differences in the interim.

Also in Louisiana. The Board of Pharmacy announced changes to several proposed rules. A public hearing will be held and comments on the following rules are due by October 26, 2020.

  1. Notice – a proposed rule that would amend regulations under LAC 46:LIII, Chapter 12, to revise automated medication system registration eligibility criteria and add detention and correctional facilities operated by state or local governments as locations. The rule also would revise credentialing procedures, modify pharmacist-in-charge responsibilities, and require the retrospective review of medications removed from a non-profile driven system. In addition, the rule would adopt documentation requirements. The changes will also revise the requirements for stocking and restocking and specify that a pharmacy with an automated medication system on-site does not need to register the system. A hearing is scheduled for October 26, 2020, in Baton Rouge.
  2. Notice – a proposed rule that would amend regulations under LAC 46:LIII, Chapter 29, to add several drugs to the definition of “drugs of concern.” The rule also would add recordkeeping requirements for prescription transactions and revise provisions on authorized access privileges, access registration procedures, and methods of access. In addition, the rule would extend the automatic registration procedures to include dispensers. The changes would also remove seven of nine drugs originally proposed and retain the drugs promethazine when present in oral liquid formulations and gabapentin.

For more information, contact NACDS’ Mary Staples at 817-442-1155.