New Prescribing Laws Take Effect January 1, 2022 Licensees of the California State Board of Optometry with prescribing authority are subject to the e-prescribing requirements established by Assembly Bill (AB) 2789 (Wood, 2018). Beginning January 1, 2022, most prescriptions (including but not limited to prescriptions for controlled substances) issued by a licensed healthcare practitioner to a California pharmacy must be submitted electronically. For more information on this law and its requirements, please see the AB 2789 bulletin. Practitioners also can get answers to questions about complying with the law at Electronic Data Transmission Prescriptions (E-Prescriptions) – Frequently Asked Questions provided by the California State Board of Pharmacy.

Electronic Prescription Changes: Pursuant to AB 852 - The California State Board of Pharmacy (CSBP) has created an online registry for health care professionals to register for an exemption to requirements to issue prescriptions as electronic data transmission prescriptions – also known as e-prescriptions.

In addition, the CSBP has created an online confirmation registry for verifying a health care professional has registered for an exemption to the e-prescription requirements.

AB 852 makes several changes to e-prescribing requirements in California, including:
1.Provides authority for pharmacies, pharmacists, and authorized practitioners to decline to dispense or furnish an electronic prescription submitted via software that does not meet specified requirements.
2.Creates additional exemptions from electronic prescriptions as specified.
3.Requires a prescriber exempt from electronic prescribing to register annually with the Board and state they meet one or more of the specified criteria.
4.Exempts the prescription transfer requirements under specified conditions.
Links to both the online registry for health care professionals and the online confirmation registry can be found under “What’s New” and under “Quick Hits” column on CSBP’s website, www.pharmacy.ca.gov.

New Grads! To apply for a license or add required documents, log onto your BreEZe account at www.breeze.ca.gov. BreEZe should be accessed using Internet Explorer on a desktop computer.