2024 Legislative Update Days 11-18
Melissa Reybold, VP of Public Policy
As you can see in the picture below, the past two weeks were busier under the Gold Dome as the field trips, group visits, and Capitol tours resumed to pre-pandemic levels. The days are now much longer as many committee meetings are creeping into the evening hours.
On Monday, February 5, session was canceled so legislators could attend Chairman Richard Smith’s funeral in Columbus, Ga. Chairman Smith passed away peacefully in his sleep while battling the flu. As chair of the House Rules Committee, he had final say on what bills move forward for a vote on the House floor. He was a big supporter of GPhA and we will miss his wisdom and leadership.
HB 546
After a meeting with Chairman Lee Hawkins, we are expecting our prescription adaptation bill to be in front of his committee very soon. Since it got unanimous votes last year, we are expecting the same this year. Chairman Hawkins expressed his concern regarding SHBP after visiting his community pharmacy in Gainesville. We are currently discussing possible solutions to help our members.
HB 1035
Representative Sharon Cooper’s bill to dispense opioid reversal drugs by vending machines passed the House and is headed to the Senate side. The vending machines are planned for Emory University but could extend to other colleges in Georgia. This legislation would also repeal the requirement that an opioid antagonist must have a prescription in order for an individual who administers it to have civil, criminal, and professional immunity. This bill would also provide immunity for harm reduction organizations that supply opioid antagonists to certain individuals.
There are a couple of other bills which will make opioid antagonists more accessible in state government buildings, courthouses, universities, and schools and GPhA will support these bills as they progress through the legislative process.
GPhA/AIP member Ira Katz has been a valuable resource in discussing opioid antagonist legislation. Also, I can’t tell you how many times during a session that a lawmaker tells me to thank Ira for being their ‘home away from home’ pharmacy and how much they appreciate his great care for them. While on the subject of Ira, Senator Nan Orrock stopped in his pharmacy before the 2024 session started to receive a PharmPAC donation. Senator Orrock sits on the Senate Health and Human Services committee and has always been a big supporter of GPhA.
Board of Pharmacy
February 14 is the next Board of Pharmacy meeting. According to the posted agenda on their site, two of our legislative initiatives from last year will be discussed: Eliminating the requirement of having a supervising physician on e-scripts written by NPs and PAs as well as partial fills of CII prescriptions. We are crossing our fingers that these two initiatives will get favorable votes from the board. If so, these two rules will be posted for public comments in a future meeting and hopefully advance to Governor Kemp’s desk for his signature.
The Board of Pharmacy has released its latest newsletter which includes information regarding CE requirements for pharmacy technicians, a GDNA update and President Michael Azzolin’s outgoing message.
And finally…
Look who I ran into at the Capitol this week! GPhA past president Wes Chapman and his wife, Abigail, stopped to chat before heading back to Vidalia. Wes is the board president for the Altama Museum of Art and History which was recently selected to receive the Governor’s Award and Wes had honor of meeting with the governor and first lady for a picture.
Things will be getting interesting here soon. Stay tuned for the next update and Calls for Action emails.
