Prohibit acceptance of coupons for dispensing as it has potential for medication safety concerns through incomplete DUR/Profile data and transcription errors.

The petition has been filed with the Register of Regulations and will be published on January 13, 2014.  Comment on the petition may be sent by email, regular mail or posted on the Virginia Regulatory Townhall at www.townhall.virginia.gov; comment will be requested until February 12, 2014. Following receipt of all comments on the petition to amend regulations, the Board will decide whether to make any changes to the regulatory language in Regulations Governing the Practice of Pharmacy.  This matter will be on the Board’s agenda for its meeting scheduled for March 26, 2014.

 At its meeting today, the Board considered the petition and comments, which were all in support of the request.  Following a lengthy discussion, the Board concluded that it needed additional information about what other states have adopted and some legal advice from its board counsel.  For that purpose, the matter was referred to the Regulation Committee of the Board for further consideration.  While the Board does not intend to initiate rulemaking at this time, the Committee will make a recommendation to the full Board at its meeting in June.