SB 759

This bill permits a pharmacist to prescribe and dispense hormonal

contraceptive patches and self-administered oral hormonal contraceptives, subject

to limitations described as follows.

The bill requires the Pharmacy Examining Board, after consultation with the

Medical Examining Board, the Board of Nursing, and the Department of Health

Services, and in consideration of guidelines established by the American Congress

of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, to promulgate rules to establish standard

procedures for the prescribing of contraceptives by pharmacists under the bill. The

rules must include certain requirements for pharmacists prescribing contraceptives,

such as requiring a pharmacist to complete a training course, requiring a referral to

a health care provider following a prescription, and requiring the contraceptive to be

dispensed as soon as practicable after the pharmacist issues the prescription order.

In addition, the rules must prohibit a pharmacist from requiring a patient to

schedule an appointment with the pharmacist for the prescribing or dispensing of a

contraceptive and from prescribing and dispensing a contraceptive to a patient who

does not have evidence of a clinical visit for women's health within the three years

immediately following the initial prescription of a contraceptive by a pharmacist to

the patient. A pharmacist who prescribes contraceptives as permitted under the bill

must comply with those rules, as well as other rules promulgated by the Pharmacy

Examining Board.

Under the bill, a pharmacist may prescribe a contraceptive to a person who is

under 18 years of age only if the person has evidence of a previous prescription from

a primary care practitioner or women's health care practitioner for a hormonal

contraceptive patch or self-administered oral hormonal contraceptive. The bill

eliminates this limitation beginning on January 1, 2020.