Legislative and Advocacy Update

May 2, 2017 April 18, 2017

H.243/S.175 Strengthen Opioid Misuse Prevention Act The bill was passed unanimously in the House on 4/10/2017 and passed over to Senate where it was referred to the Rules Committee on 4/11/2017.

H.466/S.384 Pharmacy Patient Fair Practices Act These are the bills addressing consumer and pharmacy protections as part of PBM regulation. The bills were passed in both the House and Senate late last week. Each has been sent to the other chamber for concurrence.

S. 104/ H. 708 Require Criminal Background Check/Pharmacist Licensure This bill passed in the Senate and was sent over to the House where H. 708 was read in and referred to the House Rules Committee.

Expansion of Collaborative Practice Authority We were unable to make the filing deadline to introduce our bill into the House this session. The deadline was April 25th. However, we have made great strides in gaining support. Tony Adams, NCAP Lobbyist, was able to get the very influential Reps. Josh Dobson, Donny Lambeth, Chris Malone and Jonathan Jordan to agree to be primary sponsors. NCAP plans to launch a grassroots educational and advocacy initiative around this bill beginning Summer 2017 with plans to file in the next legislative session. Stay tuned for how you can help garner more support for helping advance collaborative care in North Carolina. Expansion of Collaborative Practice Authority The Legislators have been on a short break and are returning to session tomorrow. As most of you know, NCAP has been working towards getting a bill introduced to help expand our collaborative practice authority. We are seeking to bring about changes that would make it easier for physicians and pharmacists to work together under collaborative practice agreements. These changes would broaden the use of clinical pharmacist practitioners in health systems as well as help expand collaborative care into the community setting, where to date very few clinical pharmacist practitioners work despite our current statute dating back to 1999.

Currently, NCAP lobbyist Tony Adams is working very hard to garner sponsorship to introduce our bill. Rep. Greg Murphy in the NC House is the only physician in the legislature and, unfortunately, he remains opposed. We are calling on pharmacists and physicians who currently work via collaborative agreement to call or write Rep. Murphy to share your experiences and to convey why the expansion of collaborative practice is important to patient care.

The Strengthen Opioid Misuse Prevention (STOP) Act (H 243/S175) H.243 passed the House in unanimous vote last week and has been referred to the Senate where it has been assigned to the Rules Committee. NCAP is in support of this bill and requests that members reach out to their legis-

lators in the NC Senate to ask for their support of S.175. Visit the Government Affairs tab on the NCAP website for more information about this bill.

The Pharmacy Patient Fair Practices Act (H466 / S384) Both the House and Senate versions are to be reviewed in Committee this week. These bills address PBM regulations and contain much needed consumer protections as well as pharmacist/pharmacy protections from unfair business practices that are harming both community and long-term care patients and pharmacies. The bills have opposition from pharmacy benefit management companies, and the large lobbying firm McGuireWoods is actively working against these bills. Now is the time for pharmacists to speak out by contacting their NC representative and senator to garner support for H.466 and S.384, respectively.

Require Criminal Background Check / Pharmacist Licensure (S104) This bill has passed the Senate Health Care Committee and has been re-referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee. If it successfully gets through this Committee, the bill will be sent on to the Rules Committee. NCAP is in support of this bill.