Coronavirus: AZ Executive Order Allows Emergency Prescriptions

PHOENIX, AZ — Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey singed an executive order Thursday allowing pharmacies to dispense emergency refills of maintenance medications for up to 180-day supplies, according to a release from the governor's office. The measure allows Arizonans to get their medications without trips to the doctor.

"We want to make sure our seniors and vulnerable populations are staying safe and physically distancing to the greatest extent possible, while having access to needed medications," Ducey said in the release. "This commonsense order will also help free up physicians to focus on providing critical medical services at this time."

Under the new order, the release says, the Board of Pharmacy will:

• Allow pharmacists to dispense emergency refills of maintenance medications for a 90-day supply and an additional 90-day supply if needed;
• Waive certain electronic prescribing requirements;
• Extend the requirement for a prescriber to deliver a follow-up paper prescription to the pharmacy from seven days to 15 days;
• Allow a phone-in prescription to be sent to the pharmacy via fax, scan, or photo as long as the original, hard copy prescription is kept by the prescriber;
• Waive certain hospital prescribing labeling restrictions for multidose medications;
• Allow pharmacists to interchange therapeutically equivalent medications of the same FDA drug classification unless the prescriber has noted that the medication shall be dispensed as written;
• Waive the requirement for companies producing hand sanitizer to be permitted;
• And allow an Arizona pharmacy to receive pharmaceuticals from an unpermitted wholesaler, third-party logistics provider, or manufacturer located in another state or country to alleviate pharmaceutical shortages.

The order also requires that prescriptions for hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine must come with a diagnosis code for the coronavirus and more.

See the governor's press release.