von Briesen Health Law Blog

The Department of Health Services’ Division of Quality Assurance recently issued its November/December 2009 Pharmacy Capsule, which included recommendations regarding the faxing of prescription orders. Specifically, the DQA advises that, for controlled substances in schedule III, IV and V, a pharmacy can accept a faxed prescription as long as the fax prescription contains the requisite prescription components. For controlled substances in Schedule II, a prescription only may be faxed for nursing home residents and hospice patients, and only if the fax contains the requisite prescription components. With regard to hospice and nursing home orders, it is important to note that the fax may only be transmitted by the practitioner or the practitioner’s agent; recent DEA activity and interpretation indicates that nurses at nursing homes and/or hospices are not always practitioner agents. Read the November/December 2009 Pharmacy Capsule here.

Wisconsin Assembly Bill 482 has passed the Assembly Committee on Health and Healthcare Reform, moving one step closer to ending the state’s drug-price markup rule. Representative Jon Richards (D-Milwaukee) proposed Bill 482 in an effort to allow pharmacies to sell prescription drugs below cost. Although many big chain pharmacies already sell prescription drugs at steeply discounted rates, they currently are constrained under the state’s Unfair Sales Act from being “loss leaders” and selling drugs at a price below cost. Bill 482 proposes to exempt prescription drugs from the Unfair Sales Act, thereby allowing national retailers the opportunity to offer $4.00 month prescription drug plans in Wisconsin.