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Directly Speaking
An Update from the Task Force

by Scott A. Meyers, Executive Vice President

The third open meeting (all of them are open by law) of the Collaborative Pharmaceutical Task Force has come and gone and unfortunately, we are still waiting for two of the eight voting members to be appointed. I’m not pointing fingers, Mr. Senate President Cullerton, but if the organized labor groups who concocted HB2392 last year to create this mess in the first place can’t get their stuff together to recommend an appropriate appointee to you for appointment, please appoint Garth Reynolds to represent IPhA and let us move on!

As I have mentioned in the past in other articles in previous issues of KeePosted, each of the four legislative leaders (Senate President, Senate Minority Leader, House Speaker and House Minority Leader) each had two appointments to make for this Task Force. House Minority Leader Jim Durkin, R- Burr Ridge made quick work of his appointments from ISMS (Scott Reimers) and ICHP (me). Senate Minority Leader Bill Brady, R-Bloomington followed the lead quickly and while House Speaker Madigan, D- Chicago, took his time and provided a twist by not appointing the Illinois Retail Merchants Association President, Rob Karr, as expected but got the job done before the second meeting.

The saddest part of this portion of the update is that during the three past meetings, organized labor hasn’t even bothered to send someone to at least sit in the audience and participate from there. The instigators don’t seem to be interested in solving the many identified problems any time soon. Unfortunately, nothing will happen until they get to the table and start participating.

As for the meetings, as reported previously, the first meeting was a review of the Task Force’s charge and initial identification of next steps. The second meeting or first real step was to hear an expert on “whistleblower” law talk about what is and what is not in the Pharmacy Practice Act already. The answer is pretty much nothing.

The March meeting (number 3) brought in staff from NABP to describe laws in other states that may address several of the 16 identified issues the task force is charged to review. There are some promising statutes and rules out there that may be useful but again, no steps can be taken until the task force is at full strength.

At the April Meeting of the task force, experts on e-prescribing will be present to discuss automated refills, e-discontinuation and other technology related topics. The meeting is set for April 10th at 1:30 pm in Chicago and Springfield. It will be open to the public should any interested party wish to participate. The specific locations have not yet been identified but will be posted on the IDFPR website prior to the meeting date.

The task force has had some good discussions and could be ready to tackle some of these issues in the next few meetings if and when the final two appointees are approved. I hope that we have a full task force for the next meeting and that we don’t have to repeat the discussions of the previous two. Garth Reynolds, IPhA Executive Director has been present at all three previous meetings and is expected to be appointed shortly. So we know he is ready to go. Let’s hope that organized labor gets their stuff together quickly so that we can move forward with the undertakings of the task force and improve care for our patients!