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Committee adopts positions on multiple pharmacy-related bills; list of votes and key concerns
Summary
At its April 9, 2025 meeting the committee took positions on several bills affecting pharmacy practice, patient access and regulation, recording support for multiple measures and a watch position on one bill that raised operational concerns for hospitals.
What happened: At the April 9, 2025 Legislation and Regulation Committee meeting, members recorded formal positions or directions on a series of Assembly and Senate bills affecting pharmacy practice, pharmacy operations and patient access. The committee voted to support several bills, voted to abstain on one, and left one bill at a watch status after substantive technical discussion.
Why it matters: The package of measures touches access to contraception and sterile supplies, emergency dispensing, substance-use treatment access, pharmacy retail policy and oversight of pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs). Several items could change how pharmacies, hospitals and payors operate in California.
Votes and outcomes (roll-call highlights): The committee’s roll-call votes were recorded in sequence. Unless otherwise noted, the three voting members present — Trevor Chandler (public member), Maria Serpa (licensee member) and Nicole (licensee member; identified by first name in transcript) — voted "yes." When a different vote occurred the tally is noted below.
- Assembly Bill 50 (pharmacist furnishing of over-the-counter hormonal contraception; allow up to 12-month supply): Committee voted to support. Vote: Trevor Chandler — yes; Maria Serpa — yes; Nicole — yes. Motion moved by Trevor Chandler, seconded by Nicole.
- Assembly Bill 447 (dispensing unused portion of dangerous drug to ER patients; ADDS licensure exemption): Committee left this bill at a watch status after detailed discussion; no formal support motion was adopted. (See separate discussion in this package.)
- Assembly Bill 529 (extend Board authority to waive provisions of pharmacy law for up to 120 days after a declared emergency): Committee voted to support. Vote: Trevor Chandler — yes; Maria Serpa — yes; Nicole — yes. Motion moved by Nicole.
- Assembly Bill 667 (language access for applicants; interpreters for applicants who cannot read, speak or write in English): Committee took a watch posture and sought public comment; no formal position recorded during this meeting.
- Assembly Bill 669 (require minimum 28 days of specified levels of inpatient/subacute substance use disorder treatment; prohibit prior authorization for certain FDA-approved addiction medications): Committee voted to support. Vote: Trevor Chandler — yes; Maria Serpa — yes; Nicole — yes. Motion moved by Trevor Chandler, seconded by Nicole.
- Assembly Bill 957 (prohibit a pharmacy from selling cigarettes or tobacco products): Committee voted to support. Vote: Trevor Chandler — yes; Maria Serpa — yes; Nicole — yes.
- Assembly Bill 1037 (remove sunset for pharmacists' authority to furnish hypodermic needles and syringes without a prescription): Committee voted to support. Vote: Trevor Chandler — yes; Maria Serpa — yes; Nicole — yes.
- Assembly Bill 1460 (manufacturer practices affecting covered entities/340B program — referenced in meeting as “Assembly Bill 1460”): Committee voted to support. Vote: Trevor Chandler — yes; Maria Serpa — yes; Nicole — yes.
- Assembly Bill 1503 (the Board’s sunset measure, renaming "advanced practice pharmacist" to "advanced pharmacist practitioner" and other sunset-related updates): Committee voted to support. Vote: Trevor Chandler — yes; Maria Serpa — yes; Nicole — yes.
- Senate Bill 41 (establish regulation of pharmacy benefit managers within the Department of Insurance): Committee voted to support. Vote: Trevor Chandler — yes; Maria Serpa — yes; Nicole — abstain. Motion passed on majority with one abstention.
- Senate Bill 470 (make remote/remote-meeting flexibilities under Bagley-Keene permanent): Committee voted to support. Vote: Trevor Chandler — yes; Maria Serpa — yes; Nicole — yes.
- Senate Bill 497 (limit release of medical information related to gender-affirming care under specified conditions): Committee voted to support. Vote: Trevor Chandler — yes; Maria Serpa — yes; Nicole — yes.
- Senate Bill 548 (require California Health and Human Services Agency to produce recommendations and convene advisory group to plan a long-range reduction in alcohol- and drug-related deaths): Committee voted to support with a recommendation to consider pharmacists for advisory representation. Vote: Trevor Chandler — yes; Maria Serpa — yes; Nicole — yes.
- Senate Bill 647 (allow DCA boards to waive certain licensure requirements for applicants and licensees impacted by declared disasters; require licensees to provide email addresses): Committee voted to support. Vote: Trevor Chandler — yes; Maria Serpa — yes; Nicole — yes.
Regulations and informational items: Committee noted several regulation packages in process, including a post-adoption review item, pre-notice reviews, an ADDS self-assessment rulemaking package and a rulemaking package on outsourcing facility proposals. No formal action was required on these informational items.
What members said: Supporters framed many measures as advancing patient access, public health and consumer protection. Committee member Maria Serpa repeatedly stressed operational and documentation safeguards for measures that alter dispensing or dispensing authority. Members also flagged the need for pharmacist representation on advisory bodies where substance-use disorder policy is developed.
Next steps: Where the committee voted to support, staff will prepare letters conveying that position to authors and committees. For items left at watch, staff will continue to monitor amendments and return the measures to the committee before the June 11 meeting if substantive changes are filed.
