Senate public health committee approves bill letting nonprofit hospitals seek retail pharmacy permits with limits

During a meeting of the Senate Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee, members voted to pass Senate Bill 58 as amended, removing a statutory prohibition on nonprofit, tax-exempt and government-funded hospitals holding retail pharmacy permits and adding limits on where and how many such permits those hospitals may hold.

The amendment adopted during the committee hearing inserts a definition of “hospital campus,” allows hospitals with an existing hospital pharmacy permit to obtain retail pharmacy permits, limits retail permits to locations within 250 yards of the hospital campus, and authorizes one additional retail permit per 100 hospital beds. The amendment also creates exceptions for infusion centers and for hospitals that would serve a defined pharmacy “desert” or meet network adequacy criteria. It requires hospitals to report openings, closures and permit requests to the Arkansas Legislative Council (ALC).

Senator Disman, who presented SB 58 to the committee, said the amendment was intended to balance access and oversight. “I was…