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Official Newsjournal of the Illinois Council of Health-System Pharmacists

Government Affairs Report
Legislative Day, New Lobbyists and Lots of New Bills

by Scott A. Meyers, Executive Vice President

The “13th Annual Under the Dome” 2019 Illinois Pharmacy Legislative Day is under our belts and was an exciting success! Not only did it feature a raucous rally in the Capitol rotunda but ICHP shared a changing of the guard with all those in attendance. Retiring lobbyist and legislative consultant, Jim Owen, was thanked for his 18 years of service to ICHP with the presentation of a simple, but elegant Bulova watch.

Following that, Liz Brown-Reeves and Mitch Schaben (busy in the Capitol at the time) were introduced as ICHP’s new legislative consulting team and lobbyists from LBR Consulting in Springfield. Liz and Mitch have hit the ground running and are working to keep you and our Government Affairs team informed.

In addition to the “good-bye” and “hello”, Legislative Day attendees participated in the unveiling of House and Senate bills by Representative and House Majority Leader Greg Harris and Senator Andy Manar, which will begin to regulate Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) if passed. HB0465 and SB0562 - originally shells for the addition of future language - were amended on Monday and Tuesday of the week of Legislative Day, just in time to allow for the exciting rally. There were a variety of news outlets on hand and significant coverage across the State of this important issue. These bills are part of an extensive move by the Illinois General Assembly to rein in the fast-growing prices of prescription medications. Regardless of your practice setting, every member of ICHP should support these two bills.

As mentioned in the March Board of Pharmacy Update, ICHP is currently monitoring over 90 bills in this spring’s General Assembly session. There are many of those 90+ bills that are worthy of highlighting in this article and a complete list is available online at www.ichpnet.org/pharmacy_practice/advocacy/.

I encourage you to review each one and look to see if your legislators are a sponsor of any of them. Below are the most important bills at this time:

SB1135 – Harmon – Oak Park, D: Creates a process for Clinical Psychologists to obtain prescribing privileges. Sets requirements for education and training.

SB1220 & HB2338 – Jones: Chicago, D and Gabel: Evanston, D – Provides for the licensure of Naturopathic Physicians.

SB1250 – Murphy: Des Plaines, D – requires schools to allow students with pancreatic enzyme deficiencies to self-administer pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy in school.

SB1327 - Murphy: Des Plaines, D – Provides that medications prescribed to residents of facilities licensed under the Nursing Home Care Act are not subject to the 4-prescription limit under Medicaid.

SB1665 & HB2439 – Hastings: Frankfort, D and Mike McAuliffe, Chicago, R – Excludes licensed veterinarians from the reporting to the PMP unless they believe the person presenting an animal for treatment is fraudulently obtaining an opioid prescription.

SB1715 – Hastings: Frankfort, D - Amends the Pharmacy Practice Act to allow pharmacists to administer long-term anti-psychotic medications pursuant to a valid prescription upon completion of a training course.

SB1716 – Hastings: Frankfort, D – Amends the Public Aid Code to cover all FDA approved prescription medications that are recognized by a generally accepted standard medical reference as effective in the treatment of conditions specified in the most recent Diagnostic and Statistical Manual and Mental Disorders published by the American Psychiatric Association. These must be covered by both fee for service and managed care Medicaid programs.

SB1900 – Weaver: Peoria, R – Sets quantity limits on initial prescriptions for opioids. 7-days for all patients under 18 years of age, requires counseling of the parents or caregivers on the dangers of the opiate.

SB2094 – Glowiak: Western Springs, D – Amends the Safe Pharmaceutical Disposal Act to require any county or municipality to use its city hall, police department, or other facility to display a receptacle for unused pharmaceuticals.

HB0010 & HB0197– Flowers: Chicago, D – Amends the Pharmacy Practice Act by setting a limit of 10 prescription per hour, limiting the work-day of any pharmacist to 8-hours, requiring pharmacists to get one 30-minute lunch break and two 15-minute coffee breaks each shift, requiring a technician to be on duty whenever a pharmacist is and requiring 10 hours of technician duty for each 100 prescriptions filled in a pharmacy.

HB0053 - Flowers: Chicago, D –Requires drug manufacturers to provide price increase at least 60-days prior to implementation to State purchasers, insurance companies, PBMs, and the General Assembly.

HB0163 – Stuart: Collinsville, D – Requires pharmacies to report controlled substance sales to the PMP the day of the sale.

HB0272 – Harris: Chicago, D – Creates the Health Insurer Claims Assessment Act, assessing each health claim a 1% tax to be used to obtain federal matching funds for Medicaid.

HB0349 – Cassidy: Chicago, D – Creates the Drug and Sharps Stewardship Act, requiring manufacturers, distributors, and packagers to create stewardship programs for the products they make or distribute. Requires the placement of at least 5 take back kiosks in pharmacies per county and a minimum of 1 kiosk per 50,000 population.

HB0822 – Halpin: Rock Island, D – Allows schools to purchase and store glucagon on their premises and administer to students as needed.

HB1441 – Moeller: Elgin, D – Creates the Wholesale Importation of Prescription Drugs Act, allowing Illinois wholesalers to import medications from Canada.

HB1442 – Mussman: Schaumburg, D – Amends the Pharmacy Practice Act to allow pharmacists to prescribe hormonal contraceptives if properly trained.

HB2160 – Conroy: Villa Park, D – Amends the Illinois Insurance Code to require creation of a standardized prior authorization form and process.

HB2638 – Evans: Chicago, D – Amends the Controlled Substance Act and would require prescribers to offer a prescription for naloxone if specific morphine equivalents are prescribed, an opiate and benzodiazepine are prescribed together, or the patient has a history of prior overdose.

HB2702 – Rita: Blue Island, D – Revises the sunset date of the Pharmacy Practice Act by one year to December 31, 2021.

HB3192 – West: Rockford, D – Revises IDFPR’s Civil Administrative Code of Illinois and provides that certain health care professionals licensed by the Department who have applied to renew their licenses are presumed to be licensed until the application for renewal is approved or denied.

HB3232 – Evans: Chicago, D – Creates the Prescription Drug Repository Program Act which allows patients to donate unused medications that are in date and sealed in the original containers to participating pharmacies for redistribution to Illinois’ indigent population. Provides civil and criminal immunity to manufacturers and pharmacists who participate, but not pharmacies.

HB3300 – Manley: Romeoville, D – Amends the Veterinary Medicine and Surgery Act to place limits on the quantities of opiate medications veterinarians may dispense. Prescriptions filled in a pharmacy are not under the same restrictions.

HB3414 – Slaughter: Chicago, D – Creates the Prescription Drug Repository Pilot Program Act, which is similar to HB3232. The difference is the pilot program allows the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District to also collect medications and the Pilot Program ends in 2026.

HB3647 – Edly-Allen: Libertyville, D – Amends the Pharmacy Practice Act to require all pharmacies to offer medication take-back kiosks to their patients at no charge.

These bills are the most important bills we are monitoring but as you can see, do not come close to number the 90+ we are watching. For more details on each bill you may access the Illinois General Assembly website at www.ilga.gov and search it using these bill numbers. ■