Rulemaking action by the Iowa Board of Pharmacy has been published in the Iowa Administrative Bulletin as follows:
Notice of Intended Action
ARC 6279C has been published as a Notice of Intended Action to amend Chapter Chapter 3, “Pharmacy Technicians” and Chapter 6, “General Pharmacy Practice.”
- The proposed amendments:
- Provide for pharmacist delegation of technical functions relating to prescription processing activities under specific conditions (e.g., data entry or insurance processing) to an Iowa-registered certified pharmacy technician who is performing the delegated functions at a location other than where the pharmacist is physically located, seeking to continue the practice initiated under the pandemic’s public health emergency, which require:
- Adequate security and supervision at all times to prevent unauthorized access to, and unauthorized storage/transfer of, confidential patient information or patient records,
- The supervising pharmacist having real-time access to the prescription processing system the technician is using or patient records which the technician is processing,
- The technician having access to the supervising pharmacist via a real-time communication mechanism, and
- The prescription processing system documentation of the functions performed by the technician.
- Provide for pharmacist delegation of technical functions relating to prescription processing activities under specific conditions (e.g., data entry or insurance processing) to an Iowa-registered certified pharmacy technician who is performing the delegated functions at a location other than where the pharmacist is physically located, seeking to continue the practice initiated under the pandemic’s public health emergency, which require:
- Comments may be submitted until 4:30pm on April 26, 2022.
- A public hearing will be held at 10:00am on April 27, 2022 at the offices of the Board and via Zoom.
ARC 6280C has been published as a Notice of Intended Action to amend Chapter 12, “Precursor Substances.”
- The proposed amendment temporarily amends Iowa Code to add one chemical as a precursor substance in response to similar action taken by the DEA.
- Comments may be submitted until 4:30pm on April 26, 2022.
ARC 6182C has been published as a Notice of Intended Action to amend Chapter 8, “Universal Practice Standards,” and Chapter 19, “Nonresident Pharmacy Practice.”
- The proposed amendments provide:
- Conforming edits,
- Modification of the handling of ownership changes for resident and nonresident pharmacies,
- Requirement that nonresident pharmacies which directly dispense to Iowa patients provide evidence of a toll-free telephone number with access to a pharmacist who has access to the patient’s records during the pharmacy’s regular business hours, and
- A process by which a pharmacy can temporarily relocate pharmacy operations in response to an exceptional circumstance or disaster rendering the pharmacy unsafe.
- Comments may be submitted until 4:30pm on April 26, 2022.
- A public hearing will be held at 10:30am on April 27, 2022 at the offices of the Board and via Zoom.