Customers deserve 'Plan B' referrals from pharmacies, state board says

The state's Board of Pharmacy wants pharmacies that can't fill a particular prescription to be required to actively help patients find a drugstore that does carry the medication.

The issue is particularly important for time-sensitive medications, such as the so-called "Plan B" emergency contraceptive that has been at the heart of controversy — and a lawsuit — over state rules affecting pharmacy owners and individual pharmacists.

The board decided Tuesday to start the process to amend current rules. The wording of the proposed amendment has not yet been determined, and the rule-making process will include public comments.

The board calls the action a "facilitated referral," meaning that if a customer with a valid prescription asks for a medication not in stock, the pharmacy must actively find a pharmacy that does stock the medication and refer the patient to that store — not simply tell the customer it does not stock the drug or is out of stock.

Now, under the state's rules, pharmacies are not required to stock specific drugs, with the exception of a drug to induce vomiting after poisoning.

"From the start of the original rule, the board's goal has been to assure that patients have ready access to the medications they need," said Donn Moyer, spokesman for the state Department of Health. "The board is trying to find a way for people who have valid prescriptions to have quick, unblocked, easy access: If you don't have it in stock, you help the person out. There's a lot of that that goes on already; this would just make it the standard."

Currently, the board's rule requires pharmacies to dispense legal medications for valid prescriptions — allowing individual pharmacists to opt out, but only if another is available to dispense.

The rule is now the subject of a lawsuit by a pharmacy and two pharmacists, with trial scheduled to begin in U.S. District Court in Tacoma on July 26.

Moyer said the board has complied with a request from the trial court's judge not to enforce the rule for emergency contraceptives pending the outcome of the trial.

Carol M. Ostrom: 206-464-2249 or costrom@seattletimes.com