State Medical Board of Ohio – Regulatory Updates from the Ohio State Medical Association
Telemedicine/Prescribing Rules Relaxed for Covid-19 Considerations
The medical board will be holding an emergency meeting this week to discuss changes that can be made to existing rules that will assist patients who may not be able to physically visit physician offices or in the cases where a physician’s entire office needs to close due to medical staff being exposed to a confirmed Covid-19 patient. Any changes that are made to the rules would be done so on an emergency basis and would become immediately effective. The OSMA will provide information to members as it becomes available.
Ohio State Board of Pharmacy
Understanding that while dealing with current Covid-19 activities, decisions must be made in a timely manner, the pharmacy board recently met and gave their executive director the authority to quickly amend rules without having obtain board approval.
Under this new authority, the pharmacy board has been making several emergency changes to rules that effect both practicing pharmacist and prescribers. The board has issued several documents describing these emergency changes. The documents are posted on the board’s website at www.pharmacy.ohio.gov
The most recent rule change expands the pharmacist’s authority to provide emergency refills to patients who have a prescription history with the drug they need refilled. Prior to this rule change, the limit on emergency refills for controlled substances was 72-hours and the limit for non-controlled drugs was 30-days. Patients can now obtain an emergency refill for controlled substances for 30-days and non-controlled drugs for 90-days. For more information about this rule change, and what constitutes an “emergency” under federal law, I have provided a direct link to the board’sdocument: https://www.pharmacy.ohio.gov/Documents/Pubs/Special/DangerousDrugs/Dispensing%20of%20Emergency%20Supply%20of%20Medication%20without%20a%20Prescription.pdf