Lifetime Citizen Portal Access — AI Briefings, Alerts & Unlimited Follows
NH committee hears wide-ranging pharmacy bill that would let pharmacists ‘prescribe’ in limited scopes
Loading...
Summary
SB504 would modernize the statutory definition of pharmacy practice, add limited prescribing authority within pharmacists’ training, allow physicians to dispense certain anticancer drugs, and update technician and licensing rules; proponents cite rural‑health grant incentives, while medical society asks for guardrails and reporting requirements.
The House Executive Departments and Administration Committee on April 1 took testimony on Senate Bill 504, a comprehensive update to New Hampshire pharmacy law that sponsors and pharmacy groups say is intended to align statutes with current education and practice and to expand access in underserved areas.
Senator David Rochefort, sponsor of SB504, said the bill contains both cleanup items (license display rules, remote‑work corrections for licensed advanced pharmacy technicians and label wording) and new provisions. Major new elements include allowing physicians to dispense up to a 30‑day supply of certain non‑controlled oral anticancer drugs under pharmacy‑practice guardrails, and rewriting the statutory definition of the “practice of pharmacy” to explicitly include limited ‘‘prescribing’’ consistent with pharmacists’ training.
Pharmacy organizations and practicing pharmacists urged passage. Amanda Morrill, president of the New Hampshire Pharmacists Association, told the committee the change would modernize statute to reflect that PharmD graduates have clinical training and significant experiential hours; she said the change also aligns with portions of the state’s Rural Health Transformation grant.
Hospital and ambulatory care pharmacists described existing collaborative practice agreements and work in primary‑care teams where pharmacists manage chronic disease, adjust medications, order labs, and improve timeliness of care. Maureen Brady, an ambulatory care pharmacist, said embedding pharmacists in primary‑care practices has shortened time to therapeutic control for conditions such as hypertension compared with standard primary‑care access.
Stakeholders noted guardrails. Pharmacy proponents said the bill preserves the board’s ability to determine standards of care and to discipline licensees. Bruce Berkey (Association of Chain Drug Stores) and hospital pharmacists supported operational amendments to permit certified pharmacy technicians to assist with vaccine administration to ease workflow.
The New Hampshire Medical Society supported many provisions but urged caution on the inclusion of the word ‘‘prescribe.’’ Kathy Stratton, CEO of the medical society, said community pharmacies often lack access to diagnoses and longitudinal records and asked the committee to limit prescribing to specific, validated conditions or to require reporting back to primary providers; she also urged limits on prescribing controlled substances.
David Chorney of the Governor’s Office of Rural Health Transformation said the state received approximately $204 million in year‑one funding and that up to roughly $1 billion across five years is tied to policy commitments—such as expanding pharmacists’ scope—to improve rural access; CMS conditions require implementation steps by Dec. 31, 2027.
Committee members asked whether the bill permits pharmacists to prescribe controlled substances (witnesses said not under current DEA rules), how communication would work between pharmacists and primary‑care providers, and whether the Board of Pharmacy or collaborative agreements should set additional training standards. The committee did not vote and closed the hearing; proponents and medical groups pledged to continue negotiations on guardrails and reporting mechanisms.
If enacted, SB504 would change licensing and practice standards, rely on board rulemaking for many implementation details, and tie into state rural‑health grant commitments.
