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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2023 - 2024
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | January 29, 2024 10:30 AM |
|---|---|
| From: | Representative Donna Bullock and Rep. Seth M. Grove, Rep. Tarik Khan, Rep. Jennifer O'Mara, Rep. Sheryl M. Delozier, Rep. Jonathan Fritz |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | Increasing Access to Childhood Vaccines |
| As Democrats and Republicans representing urban, rural and suburban districts, we agree that we need to take meaningful action to increase and protect our constituents’ access to healthcare services. We must provide options that are convenient and available to patients in places they already frequent, like pharmacies. Pharmacies have been safely immunizing our children for many years and were the frontline of the national and state COVID-19 vaccine response. During the pandemic, federal law also authorized pharmacists and nationally trained pharmacy technicians to administer the full range of CDC-approved routine childhood vaccines. Unfortunately, that authority lapsed in May 2023 concurrent with the expiration of the Federal Public Health Emergency (PHE). We must act now to restore equitable access to pharmacy providers across our communities. Specifically, our bill would reinstate parents’ option to seek routine childhood vaccines at the pharmacy by authorizing pharmacists, pharmacy interns and trained pharmacy technicians to administer the full range of CDC-approved vaccines to children aged five and older. This provision would be subject to current statutory requirements for pharmacy-based vaccines like parental consent, record keeping, training and protocols. Healthcare providers should partner to fill in the gaps in our system and coordinate patient access to care. The bill requires the pharmacist administering a vaccine to a child to: 1) Notify the patient’s pediatrician or PCP, if they have one, that the vaccine was administered and report it to the PA DOH Immunization Registry; 2) Counsel the child’s parent or caregiver on the importance of pediatric well-child visits and provide a referral if appropriate. Please join us in co-sponsoring a bill that will promote healthcare access and equity for children across the state. |
Introduced as HB2037