Kentucky News: Legislation Update 2007

June 1, 2007 4:16 pm

Pulished in the June 2007 Kentucky Board of Pharmacy Newsletter

Sentate Bill (SB) 88 (sponsored by Senator Robert Stivers) was signed into law by Governor Ernie Fletcher on April 5, 2007. This bill will strengthen the current Internet pharmacy law. This law requires that any out-of-state pharmacy shipping one (1) prescription into Kentucky must have a valid Kentucky pharmacy permit and must have a Kentucky licensed pharmacist-in-charge (the incidental definition in KRS 315.010 (12) was deleted by SB 88). Two new definitions were included in KRS 218A.010 regarding “Good Faith Prior Examination,” which means an in-person medical examination of the patient by the prescribing practitioner routinely relied upon in practice, at which time the patient is physically examined; and “Practitionerpatient relationship,” which means a medical relationship that exists between a patient and practitioner or designee, after practitioner has conducted at least one good faith prior examination. This new law makes falsifying, altering, creating, selling, or unlawfully transferring medical records a Class D felony. Also, a pharmacy shipping a prescription into the state shall use the same address on the return label that is on the prescription label. SB 88 also changes KRS 218A.1446 to:
an electronic record-keeping mechanism may be required in lieu of the written log or record described in subsection (2)(b) of this section if the costs of establishing and maintaining the mechanism are borne by the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
House Bill (HB) 533 (sponsored by Representative Robin Webb) regarding the registration of pharmacy technicians was introduced in the House and was assigned to the Health and Welfare Committee; however, it was not presented in committee.
Other bills that were introduced in the House or Senate this 2007 legislative session pertained to prescriptive authority for pharmacists (HB 233), importation (HB 252 and HB 256), substitution
of anti-epilepsy drugs (SB 102), allowing the Board per diem to be set by regulation (SB 112), prescriptive authority for CS by physician assistants (SB 97), and wholesaler/pedigree (SB 215). None of these bills became law. SB 112 (sponsored by Senator Richard “Dick” Roeding) passed the Senate and was on the House floor the last day of the session; however, it did not come before the House for a vote.