SECTION 1.
The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:(a) California’s pharmacists and pharmacy technicians employed by multibillion dollar, publicly-traded, pharmacy chain stores will imminently be called upon to accomplish something unprecedented: to vaccinate tens of millions of California patients on top of their already overwhelming workloads.
(b) However, widespread, profit-driven, and long-decried performance quotas imposed by these chains upon their licensed professional employees place at risk the ability of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians safely to vaccinate Californians properly while at the same time performing their already life-or-death duties.
(c) Documents and data obtained by investigative reporters, public prosecutors, and researchers have established that large, publicly-traded pharmacy chains impose performance quotas on licensed pharmacists and pharmacy technicians that place at risk the health and well-being of patients. For example:
(1) More than one-half of the chain and retail pharmacists reported high stress work environments from “having to meet quotas.”
(2) Eighty-three percent of pharmacists reported in one survey that “performance metrics contributed to dispensing errors.”
(3) Another survey by the California State Board of Pharmacy found that about 85 percent of the pharmacists surveyed indicated “workload” was “too high.” Prescription errors can be found and corrected 89 percent
of the time during such consultations. However, performance quotas such as timed metrics inhibit consistent consultations.
(4) An investigative report by The Los Angeles Times documented enormous pressure placed upon pharmacy employees by vast drug chains to meet quotas. One pharmacist is quoted as saying, “Everyone knows that if we don’t hit our quotas, people can lose their jobs,” and The Times writes “[c]ompany documents . . . have shown that CVS workers are expected to enroll at least 40% of patients into the [automatic prescription renewal] program. Failure to do so can result in loss of raises or bonuses. Other drugstores, notably Target, Rite Aid and Walgreens, have similar quotas [.]”
(5) In 2011, the California State Board of Pharmacy brought to three District Attorneys’ offices information about the three biggest retail chains failing to properly provide needed personal
consultation to prescription drug customers. All three of these major retailers were forced to pay huge fines and were permanently enjoined to comply with California’s standards for patient consultations. Indeed, major drug store chains have been forced to pay millions to settle claims brought by the United States Department of Justice and other public agencies for overzealous and unlawful profit-increasing practices.
(d) Performance quotas in normal times pose a risk to the public health. When implemented during a time when pharmacists and pharmacy technicians will have imposed upon them for an indefinite period significant new and vital public health duties, quotas are unacceptable.