R Street Institute

Policy Studies Competition Policy

Lessons for Legislators: A Guide to Allowing Pharmacist-Prescribed Birth Control

by Courtney Joslin
Sept 30, 2020
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Key Points

Pharmacists are highly trained medical professionals that aren’t allowed to practice to the top of their abilities in most cases. This is due to state licensing restrictions.
As pharmacists have increasingly become allowed to prescribe hormonal birth control, there have emerged right ways and wrong ways to go about doing this. This paper is a guide for legislators seeking to enact this change in a way that optimally increases access to birth control.
Pharmacist-prescribed birth control is cost-effective, safe, and increases access.

As legislators on both sides of the aisle have looked for ways to address high healthcare costs and access to providers, they have discovered what the medical community has known for years: pharmacists are a largely untapped resource.

Press release: Pharmacy access model is key to increasing access to healthcare providers

Image credit: i viewfinder

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