News in Brief from the FPA

Board Recommends HB389 Rules

The Florida Board of Pharmacy Rules Committee and full board met to review and recommend for adoption of draft rules related to HB389.

This legislation, signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis, allows pharmacists to initiate, modify or discontinue prescription drug therapy for patients with certain chronic diseases in collaboration with licensed Florida physicians. The legislation also allows pharmacists to test and treat patients with certain non-chronic conditions.

The draft rules require 20 hours of certificate training for chronic diseases and 20 hours for non-chronic conditions. Eight hours of that training must be in a live or a live video teleconference. A new chapter is being created that helps to implement HB389. Rules are being developed under 64B16-31.

Find a Vaccine with Website

The VaccineFinder website helps people find providers who offer seasonal influenza vaccination and routine adult and child vaccination (www.vaccinefinder.org).

VaccineFinder relies on partnerships with vaccination

providers to report accurate and up-to-date information about vaccination services. The HealthMap Computational Epidemiology Lab maintains VaccineFinder in partnership with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

VaccineFinder’s goal is to make it simple for people to find a nearby location to receive a vaccination. Pharmacies should consider registering on this site.

DHHS Moves to Expand Immunizations

Last month, The Department of Health and Human Services announced as a declaration under the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act to expand immunization services for children. This included working to allow pharmacists to provide these services.

More 22 states allow pharmacists to immunize children, however Florida laws do not permit this. While we believe that this action by HHS supersedes state laws, we are in communication with the Department of Health to clarify that Florida pharmacists can provide these services. HHS has provided a toolkit that can be used to advocate for childhood vaccinations.