Category:

• Electronic Prescribing Mandate for Controlled Substances
• National Pharmacy Compliance News
• Guidelines, Materials Available to Health Care Providers for Safely Administering COVID-19 Vaccines
• FDA Issues Guidance to Protect Consumers From Methanol Poisoning
• Standardize Concentrations for Oral Liquid Preparations
• Opioid Use Disorder Educational Programs, Resources Available for Pharmacists
• National Diabetes Prevention Program – How Pharmacists Can Get Involved
• Surgery Patients Receive More Opioids in the US Than in Other Countries
• Study Finds 94% Drop in Symptomatic COVID-19 Cases With Pfizer’s Vaccine
• NABP Executive Director/Secretary Addresses Pharmacists’ Involvement in COVID-19 Vaccination During FIP Webinar

Declining to Fill a Prescription

New CS Theft or Loss Reporting Form

Meal Periods and Break Periods

National Pharmacy Compliance News

FDA Releases MOU on Human Drug Compounding Regulation and Oversight

FDA Clarifies Compounding Rules, Offers Flexibility to Help Ease Drug Shortages During COVID-19 Pandemic

FDA Issues Updated Guidance for Compounding Pharmacies Experiencing PPE Shortages

HHS Expands Telehealth Access in Response to COVID-19

Criminals Found Posing as CDC Representatives to Steal Money and Information

On Tuesday, May 12, Governor Gavin Newsom granted California’s 47,000 pharmacists the ability to order and administer coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) tests throughout the state. His current objective is to test 60,000 California residents per day. After receiving a request for this expanded authority for pharmacists from the California Pharmacists Association, Newsom recognized that granting pharmacists the ability to test in the state would make that objective possible...READ MORE

Gov. Steve Sisolak has signed an emergency measure to safeguard the threatened supply of two drugs being hoarded for possible use in the treatment of COVID-19...The governor signed the emergency regulation Tuesday on the recommendation of the state Board of Pharmacy...The drugs, chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, are used to treat malaria, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis and are being studied by the Food and Drug Administration for possible use in patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19...The governor’s order prohibits the prescribing and dispensing chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine for a COVID-19 diagnosis, requires the appropriate prescription coding for their “legitimate medical purposes” and limits prescriptions to a 30-day supply...The order doesn’t limit use of the drugs in hospitals, only in outpatient settings where hoarding is evident, the governor’s office stressed. Doctors may continue to prescribe them to hospitalized COVID-19 patients at their discretion...READ MORE

• Pharmacists’ Vital Role in Influenza Immunization in Nevada
• Proposed Amendments to Existing Regulations Permitting Pharmaceutical Technicians to Administer Immunizations
• National Pharmacy Compliance News
• FDA Recommends Health Care Providers Discuss Naloxone With Patients Receiving Opioids, OUD Treatment
• Proposed Rule to Require Electronic Submission of DEA Form 106
• Inappropriate FentaNYL Patch Prescriptions at Discharge for Opioid-Naïve, Elderly Patients
• SAMHSA Health Privacy Rule Revised to Better Integrate, Coordinate Care for Patients With SUD

Gov. Steve Sisolak and Gov. Brian Sandoval may have come from different political parties and approached governing in different ways, but the state’s most recent governors have at least one thing in common: a bone to pick with the state’s occupational licensing boards...in recent years, occupational boards have made headlines for various failures or misconduct, ranging from failure to conduct background checks on pharmacy wholesalers for more than a decade, hiring of spuriously-qualified lobbyists, ignoring directives on maximum salaries for state employees and making “salacious and false” accusations against the governor...Much of those failures can be attributed to structural deficiencies in how the state’s decentralized occupational licensing board system works...A major...audit from last year found “lacking” oversight of boards with “inconsistent…practices that may not comply with state guidelines,” and recommended moving all boards under the umbrella of the Department of Business and Industry, in order to have a standard clearinghouse for complaints, litigation and other similar activities...READ MORE

The Board Welcomes New Members
-Helen Park
-Richard Tomasso
-Krystal Freitas
-Rolf Zakariassen

Transferring a Prescription
-NAC 639.713 Transfer of information between pharmacies: Conditions; Prohibitions
-NAC 639.714: Transfer of information between pharmacies: Procedure for oral transfers.
-NAC 639.7145: Transfer of information between pharmacies: Requirements for transfer by facsimile machine.

President Trump Signs Legislation Extending Schedule I Status for Fentanyl Analogues

Drug Overdose Deaths Related to Prescription Opioids Declined by 13% in 2018

Drug-Resistant Infections Are Increasing

NASEM Report Recommends Framework for Opioid Prescribing Guidelines for Acute Pain

New Research Shows Pharmacists Positively Impact Hospital Care Transitions

This past week Minnesota became the second state to reject regulations that effectively ban the controversial drug hydroxychloroquine for use by COVID-19 patients...The decision, which comes two weeks after the Ohio Board of Pharmacy reversed an effective ban of its own, was rightfully praised by local health care advocates...The reversal by (Gov Tim Walz) Walz, a first-term Democrat, clears the way for doctors to prescribe hydroxychloroquine, a drug commonly used to treat malaria and other conditions but one the FDA has declined to recommend for COVID-19 treatment...The politics of hydroxychloroquine are unlikely to cool before November’s presidential election. Yet, if Walz’s decision is any indication, at least some leaders are starting to recognize the ethical dilemma of using the long arm of government to stand between suffering patients and a drug that may have the potential to save them...READ MORE

The Texas State Board of Pharmacy issued a new rule that no prescriptions for hydroxychloroquine could be dispensed without a diagnosis, then changed their tune...On March 20...issued a new rule that no prescriptions for hydroxychloroquine or azithromycin could be dispensed without a diagnosis “consistent with evidence for its use.”...Over six weeks after the original rule was published, the Texas State Board of Pharmacy has recently changed its guidance to pharmacists...The website now says, “The rule does not prevent a physician from prescribing one of these drugs for an off-label use. Please note, the intended use for the drug is not required if the practitioner determines the furnishing of this information is not in the best interest of the patient…”READ MORE

Doctors are hoarding medications touted as possible coronavirus treatments by writing prescriptions for themselves and family members, according to pharmacy boards in states across the country...The stockpiling has become so worrisome in Idaho, Kentucky, Ohio, Nevada, Oklahoma, North Carolina, and Texas that the boards in those states have issued emergency restrictions or guidelines on how the drugs can be dispensed at pharmacies. More states are expected to follow suit...None of the drugs have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for that use. Some of them — including chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine — are commonly used to treat malaria, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and other conditions...Carmen Catizone, executive director of the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, said state boards across the country were “trying to stop the hoarding and inappropriate prescribing, but balancing what patients need.”...READ MORE