06 HB
246/AP
House
Bill 246 (AS PASSED HOUSE AND SENATE)
By:
Representatives Graves of the
137th,
Stephens of the
164th,
Carter of the
159th,
Burmeister of the
119th,
Parham of the
141st,
and others
A
BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
AN ACT
To
amend Code Section 26-4-60 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating
to grounds for suspension, revocation, or refusal to grant licenses by the State
Board of Pharmacy, so as to change certain provisions relating to selling,
distributing, and delivering prescription drugs by mail or other common
carriers; to amend Code Section 26-4-80 of the Official Code of Georgia
Annotated, relating to dispensing prescription drugs, electronically
transmitting drug orders, refills, and Schedule II controlled substance
prescriptions, so as to change certain provisions relating to the electronic
transmission of prescription drug orders; to provide for related matters; to
repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.
BE
IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF GEORGIA:
SECTION
1.
Code
Section 26-4-60 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to grounds
for suspension, revocation, or refusal to grant licenses by the State Board of
Pharmacy, is amended by striking paragraph (11) of subsection (a) and inserting
in lieu thereof the following:
"(11)
Regularly employing the mails or other common carriers to sell, distribute, and
deliver a drug which requires a prescription directly to a patient;
provided,
however,
that
this provision shall not prohibit the use of the mails or other common carriers
to sell, distribute, and deliver a prescription drug directly to an institution
or to sell,
distribute, or deliver prescription drug refills, upon his or her request, to an
enrollee in a health benefits plan of a group model health maintenance
organization or its affiliates by a pharmacy which is operated by that same
group model health maintenance organization and licensed under Code Section
26-4-110. Any pharmacy using the mails or other common carriers to dispense
prescriptions pursuant to this paragraph shall comply with the following
conditions:
(A)
The pharmacy shall provide an electronic, telephonic, or written communications
mechanism which reasonably determines whether the medications distributed by the
mails or other common carriers have been received by the enrollee and through
which a pharmacist employed by the group model health maintenance organization
or a pharmacy intern under his or her direct supervision is enabled to offer
counseling to the enrollee as authorized by and in accordance with his or her
obligations under Code Section 26-4-85, unless the enrollee refuses such
consultation or counseling pursuant to subsection (e) of such Code section. In
addition, the enrollee shall receive information indicating what he or she
should do if the integrity of the packaging or medication has been compromised
during shipment;
(B)
In accordance with clinical and professional standards, the State Board of
Pharmacy shall promulgate a list of medications which may not be delivered by
the mails or other common carriers. However, until such list is promulgated,
the group model health maintenance organization shall not deliver by use of the
mails or other common carriers Class II controlled substance medications,
medications which require refrigeration, chemotherapy medications deemed by the
federal Environmental Protection Agency as dangerous, medications in suppository
form, and other medications which, in the professional opinion of the dispensing
pharmacist, may be clinically compromised by distribution through the mail or
other common carriers;
(C)
The pharmacy shall utilize, as appropriate and in accordance with standards of
the manufacturer, United States Pharmacopeia, and Federal Drug Administration
and other standards adopted by the State Board of Pharmacy, temperature tags,
time temperature strips, insulated packaging, or a combination of these;
and
(D)
The pharmacy shall establish and notify the enrollee of its policies and
procedures to address instances in which medications do not arrive in a timely
manner or in which they have been compromised during shipment and to assure that
the pharmacy replaces or makes provisions to replace such drugs.
For
purposes of this paragraph, the term 'group model health maintenance
organization' means a health maintenance organization that has an exclusive
contract with a medical group practice to provide or arrange for the provision
of substantially all physician services to enrollees in health benefits plans of
the health maintenance
organization;"
SECTION
2.
Code
Section 26-4-80 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to
dispensing prescription drugs, electronically transmitting drug orders, refills,
and Schedule II controlled substance prescriptions, is amended by striking
paragraphs (1) and (5) of subsection (c) and inserting in their places the
following:
"(1)
Electronically transmitted prescription drug orders shall be transmitted by the
practitioner or, in the case of a prescription drug order to be transmitted via
facsimile, by the practitioner or the
practitioneŕs
agent under supervision of the practitioner, to the pharmacy of the
patient́s
choice with no intervening person or intermediary having access to the
prescription drug
order. For
purposes of this paragraph, 'intervening person or intermediary' shall not
include a person who electronically formats or reconfigures data or information
for purposes of integrating into and between computer or facsimile systems of
practitioners and
pharmacists;"
"(5)
An electronically encrypted, issued, or produced prescription drug order
transmitted from a practitioner to a pharmacist shall be considered a highly
confidential transaction and the said transmission, issuance, or production
shall not be compromised by
unauthorized
interventions, control, change, altering, manipulation, or accessing patient
record information by any other person or party in any manner whatsoever between
the time after the practitioner has electronically transmitted, issued, or
produced a prescription drug order and such order has been received by the
pharmacy of the
patient́s
choice. For
purposes of this paragraph, 'unauthorized interventions, control, change,
altering, manipulation, or accessing patient record information' shall not
include electronic formatting or reconfiguring of data or information for
purposes of integrating into and between computer or facsimile systems of
practitioners and
pharmacists;"
SECTION
3.
All
laws and parts of laws in conflict with this Act are repealed.