Relating to the continuation and functions of the Texas State Board of Pharmacy; authorizing a reduction in fees.

This bill would extend the sunset provision of the Texas State Board of Pharmacy to 2029 and would require the executive director to develop a training manual to be distributed to each board member annually.

This bill would also require the board to develop guidelines for identifying and preventing prescriptive practices that are harmful or patient prescriptive practices that indicate drug abuse or diversion, and develop a system in which the board could send electronic notification to a prescriber or dispenser that a pattern indicates a potentially harmful prescribing pattern.

The bill would also require the board to approve prescriptions requiring approval not later than the next business day instead of the seventh business day as is required under current law. A pharmacist would be required to access a patient’s prescriptive history before dispensing opioids, benzodiazepines, barbiturates, or carisprodol. Wholesale pharmaceutical distributors would be required to report to the board the information required to report to the Automation of Reports and Consolidated Orders System of the Federal Drug Enforcement Administration for the distribution of a controlled substance by the distributor to a person in this state.

The bill would specifically provide for certain affirmative defenses in an administrative hearing.

The bill would codify renewal requirements for pharmacist licenses including requiring the applicant to pay a renewal fee, and two times the renewal fee if the license has been expired for more than 90 days but less than a year. The bill would require the board to adopt rules regarding continuing education for pharmacists.   

The bill would prohibit the board from taking action against a licensee for exercising a sincerely held religious belief or a matter of conscious. The Senate made non substantive changes to this bill in committee.