AB 740

This bill requires that the Department of Health Services reimburse

ambulance service providers for a set of two epinephrine auto-injectors or a set of two

draw-up epinephrine kits for each ambulance operating in the state. Under the bill,

an ambulance service provider means an ambulance service provider that is a public

agency, volunteer fire department, or nonprofit corporation. The bill also requires

that, on an ongoing basis, DHS must, upon request, reimburse ambulance service

providers for replacement sets of epinephrine auto-injectors or draw-up

epinephrine kits. DHS may only reimburse ambulance service providers for

epinephrine if each ambulance for which the ambulance service provider is

reimbursed is staffed with an emergency medical service provider who is qualified

to administer the epinephrine. The bill provides additional funding to the

Department of Public Instruction for aids for special education and to the University

of Wisconsin System and technical college system for purposes of maintaining

compliance with maintenance of effort requirements of the federal Consolidated

Appropriations Act and the federal American Rescue Plan Act.

Also, for drug products prescribed to counteract anaphylaxis, this bill allows,

if certain conditions are met, a pharmacist to substitute a drug product with another

drug product that would, in the opinion of the pharmacist, have a substantially

equivalent therapeutic effect even though the substitute drug product is

not

a drug

product equivalent. The bill also provides that a pharmacist who dispenses a drug

product for a patient in a hospital may, for a drug product prescribed to counteract

anaphylaxis, under the same conditions applicable for drug product equivalents

under current law, substitute a drug product with another drug product that would,

in the opinion of the pharmacist, have a substantially equivalent therapeutic effect

even though the substitute drug product is not a drug product equivalent. Current

law defines a “drug product equivalent” as a drug product that is designated the

therapeutic equivalent of another drug product by the federal Food and Drug

Administration as set forth in the latest edition of the supplement to the federal Food

and Drug Administration's

Approved Drug Products with Therapeutic Equivalence

Evaluations

, commonly known as the Orange Book. As with substitution of drug

product equivalents under current law, the therapeutic substitutions allowed under

the bill do not apply to biological products.