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March 20, 2019
Pharmacy Technician Situation Update:
1. The Governor and the NYS Senate have included language we prefer in their budget which would clarify and codify what technicians can do within a hospital, including a certification and training requirement. This will protect the public by ensuring there are standards for this technical work (previously none in NYS) and will protect hospitals/pharmacies by ensuring the right technicians can remain in their roles.
2. The Assembly has not included this language! NYSCHP is urging members to reach out to their Assembly-members’ offices NOW and inform them/their staff of how critical this language is to include. The deadline for the budget is March 31st!
Action Needed:
- Look up your Assembly Member
- Ask your Assembly Member (you can speak to Legislative Director, Chief of Staff, etc) to support including the technician language in the final budget
- They may ask – why should this be in the budget?
- Fiscal
- This is a serious financial issue for hospitals – could be millions of dollars per health system if technicians have to be replaced with Pharmacists
- NYS is large payer of admissions (think: Medicaid), so will increase budget spend
- Urgency
- Technicians could lose their jobs and pharmacists could be pulled out of clinical roles to backfill these positions. We have heard reports of some systems already redeploying staff
- There is no guarantee that this language can be passed after the budget and before the end of the session so it must be done now
- Fiscal
- The budget language itself
- Our joint memo of support from Pharmacy Coalition Partners
- 1199 memo of support
Andrew Kaplan, Pharm.D., BCPS, BCGP
Vice President of Public Policy
