Hawaiian legislature comes out in favor of drug dispensing machines

LIHU’E, Hawaii The Hawaii state legislature last Tuesday unanimously passed a controversial bill that will allow pharmacists to use remote dispensing machines to help low-income residents in rural areas improve their access to prescription drugs. Senate Bill 2459 evolved through a mixed batch of criticism, including pages of testimony from several Kaua’i pharmacists.

Kalaheo Pharmacy Manager Catherine Shimabukuro in late March testified that the bill fails to meet the guidelines of the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy. “It is clear to me that the intention of the legislature is to provide prescription care to those who are without insurance,” she says.

State Rep. Roland Sagum, said access means more than physical locations. “The pricing of these subscription drugs is much cheaper than they can get at a pharmacy,” he said. “It’s for our people who are poor and the indigent.”

Ho’ola Lahui, a federally qualified health center and Native Hawaiian health care system with offices in Lihu’e, provides drugs to patients at Kaua’i Veterans Memorial Hospital in Waimea and Samuel Mahelona Memorial Hospital in Kapa’a.

“HLH provides these medications at a reduced cost to those who otherwise would not be able to afford these medications. The technology allows HLH to reduce costs further by having a central pharmacy location ... dispense acute medication at each clinic,” Ho’ola Lahui board director Grace Kamai said in her testimony.

Ho’ola Lahui’s remote dispensing pharmacies were stopped in April 2007 after the state Board of Pharmacy clarified the rules that a pharmacist must be on-site to dispense medications from the machines, Kamai said.

The state pharmacy board chair, Elwin Goo, testified in favor of the bill with amendments to track the remote dispensing pharmacies.

“The board supports the practice of remote dispensing and believes it is a technology that should be afforded to all pharmacies so that all residents of this state can be afforded easier access to prescription medications to meet their health care needs,” he says. “The board understands and sympathizes with the concerns of the legislature of the financial impact on the small independent pharmacies; however, this bill is not about financial gain or the prosperity of a business, but of the safe dispensing of prescription medications.”

The patient will be in contact with a technician via two-way sound and video monitoring devices, while getting the prescription filled.