Despite Doctors’ Concerns, U.S. Pharmacists Get More Leeway to Offer Treatment With Testing

Despite Doctors’ Concerns, Pharmacists Get More Leeway to Offer Treatment With Testing In the battle against covid, pharmacies became a key place for consumers to seek vaccines and testing. Some states are expanding pharmacists’ work to include directly prescribing drugs for customer… khnkit Kaiser Health News

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he easy availability of pharmacists also helped propel them into a key role during the pandemic as they became a go-to resource for covid-19 testing and vaccines. Yet even before covid engulfed the country, many states were giving pharmacists a bigger role in consumers’ health.

According to the National Alliance of State Pharmacy Associations, more than a dozen states have expanded what pharmacists can do to include testing and treating people for illnesses such as strep throat, flu, and urinary tract infections and preventing HIV. Some states allow pharmacists to prescribe oral contraceptives or drugs to help people quit smoking. Typically, pharmacists have prescribing authority under agreements with doctors or rules called statewide protocols.

But a limited number of states have gone further, allowing pharmacists to prescribe medications on their own to treat a broad range of conditions for which there are rapid point-of-care tests, if it’s appropriate based on clinical guidelines.

“We’re seeing more states looking at direct prescribing authority now as opposed to collaborative practice agreements,” said Allie Jo Shipman, director of state policy at the National Alliance of State Pharmacy Associations. The alliance offers point-of-care testing and point-of-care treating training programs for pharmacists and pharmacy students.

The Biden administration, which has leaned on pharmacies to help battle the covid pandemic by administering vaccines and tests, is now calling for a limited number of pharmacies with retail clinics that employ doctors or other health care workers with prescribing authority to directly provide medication rapidly to people who test positive for the virus. The “test-to-treat” program is designed to make sure that people with covid get a course of antiviral medication quickly because it is most effective if used within five days of when someone shows symptoms. ...