MMA Successful in Amending Pharmacy Bills
Date: 21-03-2013
[MMA News Now, March 21, 2013] The MMA has successfully amended bills from the Board of Pharmacy dealing with drug compounding and the Prescription Monitoring Program that should provide more safety for patients and improve the tool for tracking prescriptions of controlled substances.
A Senate bill (SF 1081), introduced by Sen. Julie Rosen (R-Fairmont), strengthens the state’s Prescription Monitoring Program (PMP), a tool for prescribers and pharmacists to identify “doctor shoppers.”
Rosen’s legislation also allows the state’s PMP to share prescribing information with other states’ programs to identify patients that are crossing state borders. Her bill also makes it easier for prescribing physicians to identify other physicians who have prescribed similar drugs to their patients through the PMP. Plus, her bill removes previously exempted classes of patients such as long-term care residents, hospice care patients, and those receiving intravenous medications from having their prescription patterns entered in the PMP.
The House bill (HF 1136), authored by Rep. Tina Liebling (DFL - Rochester), does not include Rosen’s PMP provisions but focuses on more carefully regulating and licensing pharmacies and wholesale drug distributors located out of state. An earlier version would have severely restricted physicians’ use of compounded drugs when administered at their clinics. This language has been removed.
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