Kansas Sets New Telepharmacy Regulations

Out of the January Kansas Register comes the announcement that Kansas has drafted new regulations for Telepharmacies:

K.A.R. 68-17-1 through 68-17-9 is a set of new regulations to address telepharmacy branch pharmacies. The following is a summary of the new regulations:

K.A.R. 68-17-1. Definitions. This regulation defines terms used in the telepharmacy branch pharmacy regulations.

K.A.R. 68-17-2. Status of telepharmacy branch pharmacy. This regulation addresses the status of the telepharmacy branch pharmacy and limits the number of such branch pharmacies a retail pharmacy may have.

K.A.R. 68-17-3. Requirements for approval of location. This regulation establishes the requirement that each location of a telepharmacy branch pharmacy must be approved by the Pharmacy Board and establishes criteria for approval.

K.A.R. 68-17-4. Application for approval of a telepharmacy branch pharmacy. This regulation establishes the requirement of an application for a registration of a proposed telepharmacy branch pharmacy and establishes the required content of the application.

K.A.R. 68-17-5. Equipment requirements. This regulation establishes requirements for equipment in a telepharmacy branch pharmacy and its use.

K.A.R. 68-17-6. Minimum operating requirements. This regulation establishes operating requirements that must be met when a telepharmacy branch pharmacy is open for operations and dispensing drugs.

K.A.R. 68-17-7. Minimum security requirements. This regulation establishes minimum security requirements for the physical location of the telepharmacy branch pharmacy.

K.A.R. 68-17-8. Renewal registration. This regulation establishes the requirement that the registration of a telepharmacy branch pharmacy be renewed with the renewal application of the parent pharmacy by application to the Pharmacy Board.

K.A.R. 68-17-9. Fees. This regulation establishes the fees for the registration and renewal of a registration for a telepharmacy branch pharmacy.

This article from the Kansas Health Institute details problems that gave rise to the new regulations, the reasoning behind the rules, the model they followed in drafting them, and when they're likely to be encoded:

“We should definitely have those approved in March,” she said.

The regulations initially met resistance from retail pharmacists worried that telepharmacy operations would hurt their business.

“A lot of of people were concerned it was going to impact their brick-and-mortar pharmacy,” she said. “We’re trying to make sure we're not doing that. They don't want a Walgreens or somebody in Kansas City setting up a location in their town that doesn't have to be manned by a pharmacist.

"There was some fear we were going to come up with something like that," she said. "But that wouldn't have been acceptable to anybody. We'd rather you go to a real pharmacist in a real pharmacy, but if you're someplace where there’s not a real pharmacist, we want to make sure there's another option.”