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Industry pushes higher pharmacy technician ratios and remote processing to ease workforce strain
Summary
Retail and chain pharmacy groups urged the committee to relax California's longstanding 1:1 pharmacist‑to‑technician requirement and to consider making remote processing rules permanent to improve workflow and patient access.
Retail and chain pharmacy representatives urged the legislature to allow greater flexibility in pharmacist‑to‑pharmacy‑technician staffing ratios and to expand remote processing provisions for pharmacies.
Jennifer Snyder of the National Association of Chain Drug Stores told the committee California is "the only state in the nation that has a 1 to 1 pharmacist to pharmacy technician ratio," and noted that the national average is about 1:4. She said the Board of Pharmacy has proposed moving to 1:2 and urged continued consideration of flexibility. Peter Kellison of Walgreens and Sarah Polomu of the California Community Pharmacy Coalition echoed calls for a larger ratio to allow pharmacists to focus on clinical services.
Board members said they have studied the issue and are considering a 1:2 ratio with flexibility measures and delegation of ratio authority to the board under certain conditions. The board also signaled interest in evaluating remote processing options used in hospitals and whether similar permanent allowances should be extended to retail pharmacies to enable administrative tasks to be done remotely.
No regulatory change was enacted at the hearing; stakeholders said further technical work and statutory language will be needed.
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