Report Title:

Emergency Contraception; Pharmacists to Dispense

 

Description:

Permits registered pharmacists to dispense emergency contraceptives.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

2124

TWENTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2002

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

EMERGENCY CONTRACEPTION.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. No birth control method is totally effective, and the consequences for those whose contraception fails is high. Emergency contraception is available for women whose barrier birth control methods fail them, but it must be taken within seventy-two hours, which does not always fit into a physician's regular schedule.

Washington State instituted a highly successful program that allowed pharmacists to dispense emergency contraception without a prescription. This collaborative pilot project made emergency contraceptive pills more readily available to women in Washington State through drug therapy agreements between pharmacists and other contraceptive care providers such as physicians.

Given that the treatment must be initiated within seventy-two hours of unprotected sex, and that the pills are more effective the sooner they are used, establishing prescription and dispensing mechanisms that are convenient to women is crucial to their ability to use the therapy effectively. California has also adopted laws to allow emergency contraception to be dispensed by pharmacists, training in this area and working with a physician. The women of Hawaii would also benefit from the ability to receive timely emergency contraception through their local pharmacists.

SECTION 2. Chapter 461, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new section to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

"§461-    Dispensing of emergency contraception. (a) A pharmacist may dispense emergency contraception drug therapy in accordance with standardized procedures or protocols developed by the pharmacist and a physician or other person authorized to prescribe contraceptive drugs. Prior to initiating therapy, the pharmacist shall have:

(1) Developed the written standardized procedure or protocol; and

(2) Completed a training program on emergency contraception, delivered by an American Council on Pharmaceutical Education provider or another training program approved by the board. The training program shall include conduct of sensitive communications, quality assurance, referral to additional services, and documentation.

(b) For each emergency contraception drug therapy initiated, the pharmacist shall provide the recipient of the emergency contraception drugs with a standardized fact sheet that includes the indications for use of the drug, the appropriate method for using the drug, the need for medical followup, and other appropriate information.

(c) The board shall develop this form in consultation with the department of health, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and other health care organizations.

(d) The provisions of this section do not preclude the use of existing publications developed by nationally recognized medical organizations."

SECTION 3. Section 328-16, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending subsection (b) to read as follows:

"(b) In addition to the requirements enumerated in subsection (a), a prescription drug shall be dispensed only:

(1) By a pharmacist pursuant to a valid prescription[;] or section 461-   ;

(2) By a medical oxygen distributor pursuant to a prescription or certificate of medical necessity; provided that the drug to be dispensed is medical oxygen; or

(3) By a practitioner to an ultimate user; provided that:

(A) The practitioner shall inform the patient, prior to dispensing any drug other than a professional sample, that the patient may have a written, orally ordered, or electronically transmitted or conveyed prescription directed to a pharmacy or a medical oxygen distributor of the patient's own choice;

(B) The practitioner shall promptly record in the practitioner's records:

(i) The prescription in full;

(ii) The name, strength, and quantity of the drug, and specific directions for the drug's use;

(iii) The date the drug was dispensed; and

(iv) The name and address of the person for whom the drug was prescribed or the name of the owner of the animal for which the drug was prescribed;

(C) The records described in subparagraph (B) shall be subject to the inspection of the department or its agents at all times; and

(D) No undisclosed rebate, refund, commission, preference, discount, or other consideration, whether in the form of money or otherwise, has been offered to the practitioner as compensation or inducement to dispense or prescribe any specific drug in preference to other drugs that might be used for the identical therapeutic indication."

SECTION 4. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 5. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

INTRODUCED BY:

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