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Official Newsjournal of the Illinois Council of Health-System Pharmacists

March Board of Pharmacy Update
Highlights of the March 2019 Meeting

by Scott A. Meyers, Executive Vice President

The March 12th Meeting of the Board of Pharmacy was held at Thompson Center at Randolph and LaSalle in downtown Chicago. These are the highlights of that meeting.

New Department Leadership - Governor Pritzker has appointed Deborah Hagan as the new Secretary of the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation and Jessica Baer as the Director of the Division of Professional Regulation. Most of the staff have remained in their positions in the Department at this time.

NAPLEX and MPJE Remediation programs - A brief update was provided by pharmacy residents from Northwestern. The “PassNaplexNow” program has provided materials for review as an option for required remediation and Rx Prep will be following up with the residents in the near future regarding potential programming. At this point, the Board has not reviewed or approved any remediation programming.

Legislative Update – The update was provided by me and highlighted several dozen bills out of the 90+ ICHP is monitoring this session. A complete list of pharmacy and health care related bills may be found on the ICHP website in the Advocacy tab under Pharmacy Practice. In addition, a summary of the most important bills can be found in the Government Affairs Report in this issue of the KeePosted.

Public Comment Period – A brief discussion occurred of the pending USP Chapters 795 and 797, which are expected to be implemented in June of this year and Chapter 800, which is expected to be implemented in December of this year. Inspectors are currently enforcing compliance with 795 and 797 based on rules implemented late last year. Accrediting bodies however, are also enforcing compliance with USP 800 even though it is not yet required by State law.

Next Meeting – The next meeting of the Board is set for May 14th at 10:30 am in Springfield. This is a change from previous years when the March Meeting was normally held in Springfield. Check the IDFPR Website www.idfpr.com for exact location. Meetings of the Board of Pharmacy are open to the public and pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and pharmacy students are encouraged to attend.