This is Your State – This is Your State on Drugs – An Intermittent Series

I’m a bit late on this update, which came out late last month, but the National Conference of State Legislatures has released another overview of what states are doing in legislation so far this year in healthcare.  Here are a few of the highlights. 

One of the most active areas of activity involved marketing practices and advertising.  The NCSL reports that during 2007 there were 27 states with proposed legislation that would require drug manufacturers to disclose  certain information, would regulate DTC or would prohibit the sale of prescription information.  Legislation along these lines was passed in Maine, Texas and Vermont, with a host of others considering proposed legislation. 

Proposed legislation aside, laws and resolutions have been passed in half of the states.  This includes action in Louisiana, Mississippi, Rhode Island, Tennessee and Utah to provide access to brand name pharmaceutical products.  Similar legislation is proposed in Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington and Wisconsin.  Some of these include such matters that you would have thought were already taken care of  – such as the passage of a law by Arkansas that prohibits online sales of drugs without the patient consulting with a prescribing practitioner.  Other more intersting efforts are represented by Arizona which passed legislation allowing access to prescription drugs in times of emergency

The regulation of drug importation or reimportation was taken up and addressed in Mississippi, with other legislation proposed in Hawaii, Kentucky, Massachusetts, New York, Oklahoma and Tennessee. 

The link above also shows you activity by state, as well as by area of interest.  The range is quite startling, with North Carolina having only 1 bill proposed and New York with a whopping 73 bills for consideration. 

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