Committee leans toward policy-based approach to implement AB 1902 on accessible prescription labels

The committee responsible for implementing recent pharmacy-related laws discussed how to put Assembly Bill 1902 — the prescription label accessibility law — into practice, and members signaled a preference for requiring pharmacies to adopt written policies and procedures rather than imposing a uniform, prescriptive turnaround time.

The issue arose during the committee’s agenda item on AB 1902, which requires pharmacies to provide accessible prescription labels in formats appropriate to a requesting patient’s disability or language and to make those accessible labels available “in a timely manner comparable to other patient wait times.” Committee members said that language, as written, would be difficult to apply uniformly across diverse pharmacy business models.

“Timely manner should not be like a month… I don't think it should be an hour,” said Song (vice chair), who asked the committee to focus on a requirement that each pharmacy document, in a policy or standard…