2021 Legislative Update: Week 9

Legislative Days 28 – 31

 

Week 9 opened with legislative day 28, which was crossover day.  By way of reminder, crossover day is the last day a bill may crossover from its originating chamber, and so if a bill does not crossover, it is no longer viable that session, though its contents may be subsequently added to a viable bill. The General Assembly worked into the night to get bills out of their originating chambers.

As previously reported, GPhA’s legislative priority,  SB 46 (pharmacist vaccine expansion), had already crossed over as had another bill central to pharmacy, HB 316 (expanding pharmacist to technician ratio to 4-1 provided that 2 of the 4 technicians are certified). 

Nonetheless, crossover day still proved eventful for pharmacy. More specifically,  HB 653 (allowing pharmacists to order and administer COVID-19 testing both serology (antibody) & viral (diagnostic) for a period of 12 months after the end of the federal emergency) was voted out of the House on crossover day after being added to a supplemental Rules Committee calendar that afternoon. This made crossover day a successful one for pharmacy.  

In addition, several other bills GPhA is monitoring made crossover, while others did not.  Set forth below is a breakdown of those bills. 

Also, following crossover, the House Health and Human Services Committee held a hearing on SB 46 and it was favorably reported via substitute. Importantly, the provisions involving pharmacist authority remain unchanged in the substitute. 

 

GPhA Monitored Bills That Made Crossover

 GPhA Monitored Bills That Did Not Make Crossover