ACCESSING EMERGENCY OR EXTRA PRESCRIPTION MEDICATIONS

You May Have a Legal Right to Emergency Refills of Life-Essential Prescription Drugs, which explains that 20 states have passed Kevin's Law (fact sheet), which allows a pharmacist to dispense an emergency supply of a chronic maintenance drug if a doctor cannot be reached to authorize a prescription. States that have passed Kevin’s Law include: Ohio and Florida in 2016; Arkansas, Arizona, Illinois, and Wisconsin in 2017; Idaho, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Tennessee in 2018; and Colorado, Indiana, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Utah, and West Virginia in 2019.

How To Boost Your Emergency Supply Of Prescription Medicines (NPR, 3/9/20).

“Healthcare Ready” is a resource from drug manufacturers, distributors, and dispensers/providers. Its website includes a page on coronavirus resources, which, among other things provides:

• A Review of State Emergency Prescription Refill Protocols (This is a Nov. 2014 paper and map about state emergency refill laws. It may be somewhat outdated but it is listed as a resource on one of the site’s current coronavirus pages.)
• An article, How to Prepare Your Meds for Emergencies like COVID-19 (3/4/20), which explains waivers from normal “refill-too-soon” limitations. Among other advice, it notes that you can check with your state board of pharmacy to find out your state’s rules.
• Directory of State Boards of Pharmacy

When a state governor declares an emergency or public health emergency, it triggers certain changes to laws or regulations, or gives the governor power to waive them. For example, in Florida in counties where a state of emergency has been declared, or in certain other circumstances, any health insurer, managed care organization or other entities licensed by the Office of Insurance Regulation must waive the "refill too soon" restrictions on prescriptions.

Healthcare Ready provides a list of CoV state emergency declarations on its COVID-19 Resources for the Healthcare and Public Health Community page (scroll down), and another list — State Level Insurance Emergency Orders — with summaries about what these orders mean, on its at Patient Resources page (scroll down). The only summaries that mention Rx refills are those for CO, MD, and WA, but there may be others.

Kevins Law Fact Sheet by Family Voices Indiana on Scribd