Bill Text: TX SB1666 | 2019-2020 | 86th Legislature | Introduced


Bill Title: Relating to the provision of pharmacy services through a telepharmacy system.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2019-03-14 - Referred to Health & Human Services [SB1666 Detail]

Download: Texas-2019-SB1666-Introduced.html
  86R3016 KKR-D
 
  By: Buckingham S.B. No. 1666
 
 
 
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 
AN ACT
  relating to the provision of pharmacy services through a
  telepharmacy system.
         BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
         SECTION 1.  Section 562.110(e), Occupations Code, is amended
  to read as follows:
         (e)  The board shall adopt rules regarding the use of a
  telepharmacy system under this section, including:
               (1)  the types of health care facilities at which a
  telepharmacy system may be located under Subsection (d)(1), which
  must include the following facilities:
                     (A)  a clinic designated as a rural health clinic
  regulated under 42 U.S.C. Section 1395x(aa); [and]
                     (B)  a health center as defined by 42 U.S.C.
  Section 254b;
                     (C)  a federally qualified health center as
  defined by 42 U.S.C. Section 1396d(l)(2)(B);
                     (D)  an ambulatory surgical center; 
                     (E)  a birthing center;
                     (F)  a community health center;
                     (G)  a hospital;
                     (H)  an outpatient clinic; and
                     (I)  a public health clinic;
               (2)  the locations eligible to be licensed as remote
  dispensing sites, which must include locations in medically
  underserved areas, areas with a medically underserved population,
  and health professional shortage areas determined by the United
  States Department of Health and Human Services;
               (3)  licensing and operating requirements for remote
  dispensing sites, including:
                     (A)  a requirement that a remote dispensing site
  license identify the provider pharmacy that will provide pharmacy
  services at the remote dispensing site;
                     (B)  a requirement that a provider pharmacy be
  allowed to provide pharmacy services at not more than two remote
  dispensing sites;
                     (C)  a requirement that a pharmacist employed by a
  provider pharmacy make at least monthly on-site visits to a remote
  dispensing site or more frequent visits if specified by board rule;
                     (D)  a requirement that each month the perpetual
  inventory of controlled substances at the remote dispensing site be
  reconciled to the on-hand count of those controlled substances at
  the site by a pharmacist employed by the provider pharmacy;
                     (E)  a requirement that a pharmacist employed by a
  provider pharmacy be physically present at a remote dispensing site
  when the pharmacist is providing services requiring the physical
  presence of the pharmacist, including immunizations;
                     (F)  a requirement that a remote dispensing site
  be staffed by an on-site pharmacy technician who is under the
  continuous supervision of a pharmacist employed by the provider
  pharmacy;
                     (G)  a requirement that all pharmacy technicians
  at a remote dispensing site be counted for the purpose of
  establishing the pharmacist-pharmacy technician ratio of the
  provider pharmacy, which, notwithstanding Section 568.006, may not
  exceed three pharmacy technicians for each pharmacist providing
  supervision;
                     (H)  a requirement that, before working at a
  remote dispensing site, a pharmacy technician must:
                           (i)  have worked at least one year at a
  retail pharmacy during the three years preceding the date the
  pharmacy technician begins working at the remote dispensing site;
  and
                           (ii)  have completed a board-approved
  training program on the proper use of a telepharmacy system;
                     (I)  a requirement that pharmacy technicians at a
  remote dispensing site may not perform extemporaneous sterile or
  nonsterile compounding but may prepare commercially available
  medications for dispensing, including the reconstitution of orally
  administered powder antibiotics; and
                     (J)  any additional training or practice
  experience requirements for pharmacy technicians at a remote
  dispensing site;
               (4)  the areas that qualify under Subsection (f);
               (5)  recordkeeping requirements; and
               (6)  security requirements.
         SECTION 2.  Sections 562.110(g), (h), and (i) Occupations
  Code, as added by Chapter 485 (H.B. 2561), Acts of the 85th
  Legislature, Regular Session, 2017, are repealed.
         SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2019.
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