Harshbarger, Sherrill Reintroduce Bipartisan Legislation to Digitize Prescription Information, Improve Patient Safety
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Representative Diana Harshbarger (R-TN), a practicing pharmacist before being elected to Congress, and U.S. Representative Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) reintroduced the bipartisan Prescription Information Modernization Act. This legislation would allow the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to move forward with a proposed rule allowing drug manufacturers to transmit prescribing information electronically to doctors and pharmacists, as opposed to printed copy, as currently required.
“Pharmacists and physicians deserve timely, accurate data when making decisions that impact patient health, not pages of printed material that often arrive late and are immediately discarded,” said Rep. Harshbarger. “This bipartisan bill is a practical update that empowers healthcare professionals with real-time digital access, cuts waste, and ensures patients are receiving the most up-to-date information. Thank you to my colleague, Representative Sherrill for working with me to bring prescribing information into the 21st century.”
“I’m focused on improving our healthcare system to ensure healthcare providers are able to provide the best possible care to patients. Under outdated rules, providers are prohibited from receiving prescribing information for medications digitally. This legislation would finally modernize our system, allowing pharmacists to access real-time updates on prescription medications that will ensure they can dispense medicines to patients safely while reducing waste at the same time.” said Rep. Sherrill.
Under the current policy, which has not been updated since 1962, prescribing information sent to providers that contain important information related to a specific drug must be printed, running an average of 45 pages per prescription. This information is not intended for patients but rather contains the drug’s chemical makeup and information that informs a healthcare professional on the drug’s interaction with other drugs. In 2014, the FDA proposed a rule that would allow the electronic distribution of prescribing information. Since then, Congress has used the appropriations process to prevent the agency from finalizing that rule, requiring the bulky paper labels to be printed and distributed, even though many are immediately discarded by healthcare professionals for being outdated.
The Harshbarger-Sherrill legislation would give healthcare professionals the option to choose how they receive prescribing information. In most cases, healthcare professionals choose to receive the information digitally because the information is available in real-time. Printed information takes approximately 8-12 months from printing to shipment, and information is often outdated by the time it reaches the recipient.
This legislation has drawn support from leading pharmacy and healthcare advocacy organizations, including the Alliance to Modernize Prescribing Information (AMPI) and the following groups: Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP), Allergy & Asthma Network, American Pharmacists Association, AmGen, Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, Association for Accessible Medicines, Beyond Type 1, Biotechnology Innovation Organization, BioNJ, BioUtah, Boomer Esiason Foundation, Environmental Paper Network, Georgia Bio, Healthcare Distribution Alliance, HealthCare Institute of New Jersey, LUNGevity Foundation, Lupin, Maryland Tech Council, MassBio, McKesson, National Association of Chain Drug Stores, National Consumers League, National Grange, NewYorkBIO, North Carolina Biosciences Organization, Texas Healthcare and Biosciences Institute, and Zero Cancer.
Additional sponsors of this legislation include Reps. David Valadao (R-CA), Don Davis (D-NC), Ken Calvert (R-CA), Scott Peters (D-CA), Julia Letlow (R-LA), Deborah Ross (D-NC), Brad Schneider (D-IL), Steve Womack (R-AR), and Paul Tonko (D-NY).
You can read the full bill text HERE.