Advocacy

A joint statement of the Attorney General, the medical and pharmacy boards was published yesterday. You can access it HERE. It does emphasize 38 printers authorized to provide secure prescription pads. It also encourages pharmacists to consider “ . . . in the exercise of his or her best professional judgment,  [...]

Pharmacies refusing scrips. The Medical Board of California notified prescribers of new secure controlled substance prescription pad requirements (AB 1753) going into effect January 1 – only the notice wasn't sent out until December 28, leaving many prescribers scrambling to meet patient needs for medication in the new year. Pharmacies [...]

2019 legislative session is already out of the starting blocks. Senator Anthony Wiener (D-San Francisco) offers SB 40, 2019 cleanup legislation for his innovative 2018 conservatorship bill SB 1045. SB 1045 combined conservatorships, housing, mental health and drug treatment in a package for chronically homeless with co-occurring disorders as a pilot [...]

Looking east, newly elected US House Democratic majority signifies ACA may be safe. Would be nice to see repeal and replace in my rear-view mirror. Attempts numbered 76 or so. Still, attempted mayhem to eliminate ACA pre-existing condition protections plays out in federal courts, with US Department of Justice refusing [...]

We’ve have had recent conversations to move the ball forward and improve the CPA grave disability bill, AB 1971, which will, in all likelihood, be reintroduced in 2019. Other conversations are refining an approach to 2019 legislation providing a continuum of care for youth with substance use issues – after [...]

Online Bill Registry and Public Psychiatry Loan Repayment. Two CPA sponsored bills bit the dust and were held in Senate Appropriations Committee yesterday, on the dreaded suspense file – graveyard for many bills. AB 1193 (Eggman) which would have established an online real-time psychiatric bed registry, faced obdurate and implacable [...]