Sponsor decides not to present bill on contraceptives

A bill that would allow patients to obtain birth-control pills from a pharmacy without first obtaining a prescription was tabled by a Senate committee Wednesday after its sponsor failed to present it as scheduled.

Rep. Aaron Pilkington, R-Clarksville, said he decided not to present House Bill 1290 to the Senate Committee on Public Health, Welfare and Labor after hearing from other lawmakers about a threat from the committee’s chairman, Sen. Missy Irvin, R-Mountain View.

He said he was told that, if HB1290 cleared the committee, Irvin would vote against advancing a bill increasing state regulation of pharmacy benefit managers from the Senate Committee on Insurance and Commerce.

“Unfortunately, she’s that passionately against this bill that she’s willing to hold another bill hostage,” Pilkington said. “I don’t think that’s right, but that’s just the way it sometimes works down here.”

Irvin, whose husband is a family practice physician, didn’t immediately respond to a text message seeking a response to Pilkington’s comments. Her phone’s voice mail was full.

The committee did advance two other bills that would let pharmacists dispense other drugs without a prescription.

Pilkington’s bill, which passed in the House earlier this month, had been set as a special order of business before the Senate public health committee Wednesday.

After learning that Pilkington didn’t plan to present it, the committee voted to table it. Removing it from tabled status, to consider it for advancement to the full Senate, would require the support of a majority of the eight-member committee.

Pilkington said he hopes to present it later, after the pharmacy benefit manager bill, Senate Bill 520, clears the Senate Insurance and Commerce Committee.

SB520’s sponsor, Sen. Kim Hammer, R-Benton, who is a member of the public health committee, declined to comment on Pilkington’s stated reasons for not presenting his bill Wednesday.

He did say he wouldn’t let a threat against one bill affect his support for another bill.

“I think I pretty much have a reputation of letting each bill stand on its own,” he said.

HB1290 would allow pharmacists who complete a training program approved by the state Board of Pharmacy to dispense oral contraceptives to those who are 18 or older.

The pharmacist would have to follow a protocol approved by the Pharmacy Board and state Medical Board, and notify the woman’s primary-care provider.

If the woman had not seen a primary-care or women’s health practitioner within the previous six months, the pharmacist would be required to refer the woman to a primary-care provider and limit the drugs to a six-month supply.

Hammer’s bill would place new restrictions on pharmacy benefit managers in an attempt to ensure they adequately reimburse pharmacists for the cost of dispensing drugs.

SB520 would also clarify that the Insurance Department’s regulation of pharmacy benefit managers, established under a law passed last year, extends to the managed care companies that this month took over responsibility for covering Medicaid recipients with significant mental illness or developmental disabilities.

In voice votes, with no dissent, the Senate public health committee advanced two other pharmacy-related bills:

■ House Bill 1278, which would allow pharmacists to administer childhood vaccines to children 7 and older under a physician’s written protocol.

■ House Bill 1263, which would allow pharmacists to dispense nicotine replacement products under a statewide protocol.

Most of the tobacco-cessation products already can be purchased without a prescription, but dispensing them under the protocol would allow customers to pay for them through their insurance plans without obtaining a doctor’s prescription.

Both bills, which also passed in the House this month, now go to the full Senate.