Pharmacy Legislation Advances at Capitol

• HB 3441 by Chairman Eddie Lucio III is on the Local and Consent calendar in the House for Friday, April 26. It should pass the House and move on the Senate, pending no House drama (and you can always count on House drama). We hope its Senate companion, SB 2284 by Sen. Charles Schwertner (the only pharmacist in the Texas Legislature) will be scheduled for a hearing next week in the Business and Commerce Committee.
• SB 1056 by Sen. Judith Zaffarini is on the Local and Uncontested calendar in the Senate for Friday, April 26. It should pass the Senate and move to the House. The House companion to this bill, HB 4297 by Rep. John Raney, passed out of the House Public Health Committee and is on its way to the House floor.
  
• HB 2174 by Rep. John Zerwas, regarding mandatory electronic prescribing of controlled substances (EPCS), passed the House on Wednesday and is headed to the Senate.
• HB 2817, PBM reform legislation by Chairman Lucio, which also incorporates several provisions from HB 2231 by Rep. Tom Oliverson, has been placed on a General State calendar for April 29. Its companion, SB 2261 by Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, is still awaiting a hearing in the Senate Business and Commerce Committee.
• HB 1455, regarding wholesale audits, passed the House and has been received by the Senate.
• Next week we're hoping for a hearing on HB 4285, TPA's "test and treat" legislation. We've modified it significantly to only allow for furnishing antiviral medication after hours and on weekends to persons 18 years and older with a positive CLIA-waived test for influenza. It's not perfect, but we're not going to let perfect get in the way of good.

TPA continues to fight physician dispensing. HB 1622 is currently locked up in the House Public Health Committee, but legislators may leverage their political capital at any time. We're working against this bill as we believe pharmacists are uniquely trained and qualified to dispense medications, and dispensing by pharmacists protects patients health.

TPA won't stop working until the end of the session. Even after that, we'll work with the Governor's office to ensure our bills receive his approval. Anything can happen in these remaining weeks. A bill can die a slow death, lingering at the bottom of a House calendar while members kill them one at a time as the clock ticks away. What seems to be a dead bill can rise like a phoenix from the ashes as an amendment to another bill in committee, on the floor, or even in the elusive conference committee. Watch for further updates as we near the end of the session.

Also this week, TPA Board Member Lauren Clark, an H-E-B pharmacist from Austin, joined Public Affairs Director Stephanie Chiarello to talk with legislators about test and treat and other priority bills. Two wonderful student volunteers from the UT College of Pharmacy, Ryan Hoffart and Deepali Bhandari, also joined them to distribute TPA's pharmacy fact sheet and a list of bills we support to the entire legislature. TPA members can find the fact sheet as part of our online Advocacy Toolkit.

TPA Board Member Lauren Clark discuss pharmacy priorities with a legislative staff member.

Clark, along with pharmacy students Ryan Hoffart and Deepali Bhandari, distributed information about pharmacy priorities to legislators' offices.