Bill: HB 2561, 85(R) - 2017

Committee

House Public Health

2nd Chamber Committee

Senate Health & Human Services

Vote Recommendation

Vote Recommendation Economic Freedom Property Rights Personal Responsibility Limited Government Individual Liberty
Neutral Neutral Neutral Neutral Neutral Neutral

Author(s)

Senfronia Thompson

Sponsor(s)

Van Taylor

Bill Caption

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

Fiscal Notes

Estimated Two-year Net Impact to General Revenue Related Funds for HB 2561, Committee Report 1st House, Substituted: an impact of $0 through the biennium ending August 31, 2019.

The bill would make no appropriation but could provide the legal basis for an appropriation of funds to implement the provisions of the bill.

Bill Analysis

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. 

Vote Recommendation Notes

We support reducing fees for licensed occupations. On the other hand we oppose the inclusion of harmful prescribing pattern monitoring systems which are an unnecessary state mandate. For these reasons we remain neutral on HB 2561.

Source URL (retrieved on 03/28/2024 04:03 PM): http://reports.texasaction.com/bill/85r/hb2561?print_view=true