Indiana News: Continuing Education Requirements and Discipline for Failing to Complete

August 1, 2007 3:10 pm Topics: Continuing education and Disciplinary action

Published in the August 2007 Indiana Board of Pharmacy Newsletter

Based on new legislation from 2006 and effective as of the most recent continuing education (CE) audit conducted by the Board of Pharmacy in May 2007, any pharmacist that fails to comply with CE requirements will be subject to a mandatory one thousand dollar ($1,000) fine, ie, if the Board of Pharmacy’s audit determines that the pharmacist is not in compliance with CE requirements, the monetary fine has been set by the Board of Pharmacy at $1,000. Note that the “failure to comply” determination can be appealed as discussed in the administrative process below.

SEA 333 was passed by the Indiana General Assembly during the 2006 legislative session. The law includes many provisions that will modify the way the Board of Pharmacy regulates CE. The new law establishes certain CE requirements that apply to all professions for which CE is required including pharmacists.

The Board of Pharmacy continues to conduct random audits of CE compliance. Prior to the new law, once the audits were completed, the Board filed a complaint with the Consumer Protection Division of the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) for any licensee who failed to comply with the audit. This initiated a more formal investigation that took as many as two years to complete because that office must investigate and prosecute higher priority cases first.

By amending these statutory provisions, the Board is now able to handle noncompliant pharmacists in a more expeditious manner by implementing civil penalties for this noncompliance without the need to overburden the OAG’s investigation process.