Bill Text: WV SB46 | 2018 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Permitting pharmacists to inform customers of lower-cost alternative drugs
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 2-0)
Status: (Passed) 2018-04-23 - Chapter 123, Acts, Regular Session, 2018 [SB46 Detail]
Download: West_Virginia-2018-SB46-Introduced.html
WEST virginia Legislature
2018 regular session
Introduced
Senate Bill 46
By Senators Cline and Takubo
[Introduced January
10, 2018; Referred
to the Committee on Health and Human Resources]
A BILL to amend and reenact §30-5-10 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended; and to amend said code by adding thereto a new section, designated §30-5-12c, all relating to permitting pharmacists to inform customers about lower cost alternatives to prescribed drugs; and limiting the ability of pharmacists and pharmacy benefit managers to charge retail prices for drugs in excess of the price paid for the drugs by those pharmacists or pharmacy benefit managers.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
ARTICLE 5. PHARMACISTS, PHARMACY TECHNICIANS, PHARMACY INTERNS AND PHARMACIES.
§30-5-10. Scope practice for licensed pharmacist;
(a) A licensed pharmacist may:
(1) Provide care related to the interpretation, evaluation, and implementation of medical orders;
(2) Dispense of prescription drug orders; participate in drug and device selection;
(3) Provide drug administration;
(4) Provide drug regimen review;
(5) Provide drug or drug-related research;
(6) Perform patient counseling;
(7) Provide pharmacy related primary care;
(8) Provide pharmacist care in all areas of patient care, including collaborative pharmacy practice;
(9) Compound and label drugs and drug devices;
(10) Proper and safe storage of drugs and devices;
(11) Maintain proper records;
(12) Provide patient counseling concerning the therapeutic value and proper use of drugs and devices;
(13) Order laboratory tests
in accordance with drug therapy management; and
(14) Provide medication therapy management; and
(15) Inform customers about lower cost alternatives to the medication that the customers have been prescribed, including, but not limited to, biosimilar or generic drugs.
(b) A licensee meeting the requirements as promulgated by legislative rule may administer immunizations.
(c) The sale of any medicine, if the contents of its container, or any part thereof, taken at one time, are likely to prove poisonous, deleterious, or habit-forming is prohibited by any person other than a registered pharmacist, who shall take precautions to acquaint the purchaser of the nature of the medicine at the time of sale.
§30-5-12c. Pricing limitations.
Pharmacists and pharmacy benefit managers may not sell drugs to customers at a retail price in excess of the price that the pharmacist or pharmacy benefit manager paid to acquire those drugs.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to permit pharmacists to inform customers about lower cost alternatives to prescribed drugs. The bill limits the ability of pharmacists and pharmacy benefit managers to charge retail prices for drugs in excess of the price paid for the drugs by those pharmacists or pharmacy benefit managers.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from a heading or the present law and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.
