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Board of Pharmacy Update
Highlights of the September Meeting

by Scott A. Meyers, Executive Vice President

The September 12^th Board of Pharmacy Meeting was held at the James R. Thompson Center at Randolph Street and LaSalle Street in downtown Chicago. These are the highlights of that meeting.

Department Update – Katy Straub, Board of Pharmacy’s general counsel provided news from the Department of Financial and Professional Affairs. The Department is now collecting all licensee email addresses as this will be the preferred method of communication in the future.

Patient Counseling Rules went into effect on August 18^th with enforcement going into effect on September 1^st. Pharmacists or student pharmacists must provide counseling to patients whenever a new patient present a prescription, an existing patient presents a new prescription, or an existing patient presents a change in dose, frequency or route of an existing prescription. Pharmacy Technicians may no longer provide an offer for counseling. A sign must be clearly posted near the cash register or patient waiting area describing the patient’s right to counseling. The sign may be downloaded from the Department’s website. If counseling is not practicable as in cases of mail order, home prescription delivery or in the professional judgement of the pharmacist, a copy of the sign must be placed in the bag or envelope containing the filled prescription. If a pharmacist is on a lunch break and unavailable to counsel, no medications may leave the pharmacy.

Licensing of all new pharmacy technicians must be done online now with no mailed paper applications accepted by the Department. All communications regarding the licensing process will be done online also. This will eliminate the deficiency letter process and will provide the applicant with immediate feedback when an application is deficient.

The 2017 NABP District IV Meeting – will take place in Toledo, Ohio in early November. The meeting is jointly sponsored by the Ohio Board of Pharmacy and the University of Toledo College of Pharmacy. Illinois will be represented by several Board members and a variety of faculty from Illinois’ six colleges of pharmacy.

Legislative Update – was provided by IPhA Executive Director, Garth Reynolds. The bills described are also highlighted in this issues Government Affairs Report. The November update will be provided by ICHP’s Executive Vice President.

Audience Comments – At the conclusion of the open portion of the Board meeting, members of the audience are allowed to ask questions and provide comments to the Board members. During this portion, there were several questions clarifying the counseling rules requirements. For example, what to do if the patient sends a neighbor or family member to pick up their prescriptions and the pharmacist believes this may create a HIPAA violation. The pharmacist always has the ability to use his/her professional judgement and determine that counseling is not practicable in a specific case.  The sign is then required to be included in the bag, and it was suggested that the pharmacist should reach out to the patient proactively to make sure he/she understands the important aspects of their medication therapy.

The Department staff was asked when the draft compounding rules would be published, and it was reported that it would be soon. We’re not sure how “soon” is defined but sometime this fall.

Next Board of Pharmacy Meeting – The next meeting of the Illinois Board of Pharmacy will be held at 10:30 AM on Tuesday, November 14^th at the James R. Thompson Center in downtown Chicago. Announcements and agendas are posted at least 14 days in advance on the IDFPR pharmacy website. The profession is welcome to attend the open portion of this meeting.