Bills as Band-Aids: Hopes and Challenges of Expanding Pharmacists' Prescriptive Authority to Include Contraceptives

This paper critically examines the implications of state efforts to expand prescriptive authority of pharmacists, which will allow them to prescribe various types of hormonal contraceptives. With this expansion, women no longer need to see a physician before being prescribed such contraceptives, but instead, they must answer self-assessment questionnaires at the pharmacy to ensure that their chosen method is safe and appropriate. This paper argues that while these measures to expand pharmacists' prescriptive authority will surely meet the stated goal to increase access to hormonal contraceptives, the measures may have detrimental consequences that have largely been downplayed. Studies consistently show that the OB-GYN is a significant primary care provider identified by young female patients, and some of the main reasons provided by these young women for going to the OB-GYN is to discuss, or obtain a prescription for, contraceptives. Through the expansion of pharmacists' prescriptive authority, a likely consequence is that some women will relinquish going to the OB-GYN. However, the OB-GYN provides important services beyond contraceptives, such as preventive screenings for hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, alcohol abuse, mental health, etc., and there is evidence supporting both the effectiveness and cost-benefits of these interventions. By increasing access to contraceptives, the likely result is that many women will have less interaction with a physician and will receive fewer preventive screenings. I do not wish to suggest that these bills should not pass, nor that OB-GYNs should hold contraceptives hostage, only that there are consequences to expanded prescriptive authority that must be anticipated. Further, expanding prescriptive authority obscures the real problem: some individuals have trouble accessing the health care system, not merely trouble accessing hormonal contraceptives. The expansion of prescriptive authority to include contraceptives applies a Band-Aid to treat one aspect of this problem. What is needed is not merely expanded access to hormonal contraceptives, but better access to health care in general.