HOUSE BILL REPORT

EHB 2570

This analysis was prepared by non-partisan legislative staff for the use of legislative members in their deliberations. This analysis is not a part of the legislation nor does it constitute a statement of legislative intent.

Brief Summary of Engrossed Bill

Requires the Department of Health (DOH) to establish a searchable database available on its website that lists the pharmacies that have one or more pharmacists on staff who have a collaborative drug therapy agreement (CDTAs) to prescribe vaccines or self-administered hormonal contraceptives.
Requires pharmacies who employ at least one pharmacist with a CDTA to provide this data to the DOH as requested by the DOH.
Allows the DOH to forgo establishing or operating the database if it determines there is a substantially similar statewide database in operation.

Background:

The Pharmacy Quality Assurance Commission (Commission) regulates the practice of pharmacy and enforces all laws placed under its jurisdiction. A pharmacist is a person properly licensed by the Commission to engage in the practice of pharmacy. The practice of pharmacy includes the initiation or modification of drug therapy in accordance with written guidelines or protocols previously established and approved for the pharmacist's practice by a practitioner authorized to prescribe drugs. The written guideline or protocol, also known as a collaborative drug therapy agreement (CDTA), is defined as an agreement in which any practitioner authorized to prescribe legend drugs delegates to a pharmacist or group of pharmacist's authority to conduct specified prescribing functions. The agreement must include:

the parties subject to the agreement;
a time period not to exceed two years during which the written guidelines or protocol will be in effect; and
the type of prescriptive authority decisions which the pharmacist or pharmacists are authorized to make.

In 2016 the Commission was required to develop a sign or sticker to be displayed on the window or door of a pharmacy that initiates or modifies drug therapy related to self-administered contraception.

Summary of Engrossed Bill:

By July 1, 2020, the Department of Health (DOH) must establish a searchable database available on its website that lists the pharmacies that have one or more pharmacists on staff that have a collaborative drug therapy agreement (CDTA) to prescribe vaccines or self-administered hormonal contraceptives. The data base must include the name and location of the pharmacy and the general types of vaccines or self-administered hormonal contraceptives available through the CDTA. The database must be searchable by zip code and include a map function. It also must be updated quarterly and include a statement that the information is provided for information only and is subject to change.

Beginning April 1, 2020, pharmacies in the state with one or more pharmacists on staff that prescribe vaccines or hormonal contraceptives through a CDTA must provide the DOH the information necessary for the database, as requested by the DOH.

If the DOH determines that a statewide association of pharmacists or pharmacies provides a substantially similar database, the DOH may forgo establishing or operating the database. If the department does not establish the database or stops operating it, pharmacies are no longer required to provide the information to the DOH on pharmacists it employs with a CDTA.

Staff Summary of Public Testimony:

(In support) Pharmacies can play an important role in expanding access to birth control with the use of a collaborative drug therapy agreement (CDTA), which allows a pharmacist to directly prescribe birth control. But through work on this issue over the last few years it has been discovered that few pharmacies have pharmacists with CDTAs in place to prescribe birth control and that most women do not know where these services are provided. This bill aims to help women understand which pharmacies offer birth control through a CDTA. This bill also includes vaccines so that people who need vaccines for traveling out of the country can easily find where they are provided rather than calling each individual pharmacy. There are a few stakeholder concerns, including that the pharmacies have to double report on the same information and that it might be difficult to keep this information up to date as pharmacists move from pharmacy to pharmacy.

(Opposed) While there is support for the concept of patient awareness, this bill does not meet patient needs. Collaborative drug therapy agreements are between a pharmacist and provider and not pharmacies, so this information may change quickly as pharmacists move around. Pharmacies already promote the services they provide on their own websites and in the pharmacies themselves, so the database is unnecessary and just requires additional reporting of information that the Department of Health should already have. License fees for pharmacists are already set to increase to address additional workload and oversight activity, and this bill would likely add to the increase.