Monday, September 14, 2009

Drug Repository Is Signed Into Law!

I just found out today that Kulongoski signed the bill into law! I don't know when, but apparently, there wasn't a signing ceremony so I didn't get notified. I will, however, get a signed parchment copy of the law when it's available. She's kinda shy about appearing on a blog, so I took out her reply, which I posted earlier. I apologize for that!

The gist of her reply was that we will need to encourage pharmacies to participate as it is a voluntary program. Also, there will be the "handling fee" that the pharmacies can charge, which would be billed to the person who needs the drug, but Sara's assistant wondered if we could get charitable organizations to donate some money to offset that cost somehow. I'd hope that they wouldn't pass that fee on to the patients who are requesting the medications - these are the patients who cannot afford these meds to begin with. However, there are legal and liability reasons why pharmacies can't charge the donor. Sooo . . . let's put our heads together and see how we can encourage pharmacies to participate - and strongly encourage that they waive the fee - and maybe also encourage charitable organizations to donate money for patients if they do need to pay a "handling fee".

[Note: I found out that Kulongoski signed it on June 17, 2009. It passed the Senate unanimously.]

2 comments:

MisAnthropology said...

Congratulations, you crazy activist you!

Dee said...

Thanks, Mary!