Telepharmacy Offers Convenience, Poses Challenges - Increasing Access

Sep 17, 2026

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Telepharmacy expands access to pharmaceutical care by enabling remote prescribing, video-based counseling, online prescription purchases, and automated pickup processes. Regulatory bodies face the dual task of encouraging innovation while enforcing standards that protect patient well-being and privacy. The text highlights drivers such as an aging population, recruitment difficulties, and rural pharmacy closures, and describes policy guidance on restricting use to medically underserved areas.

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CategoryHealthcare

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Telepharmacy Offers Convenience, Poses Challenges

Increasing Access

# Telepharmacy Offers Convenience,PosesChallenges to push states toward acommon standard fore-prescribing.State boardshave had-and are havingto-decide how best toprotect the public health byencouraging or discouragingthe initiatives taking placethroughout the world ofpharmacy practice. Tot many years ago,telepharmacyImight have been defined as conducting pharmacy business over thetelephone-the pharmacist answering aquestion,for example.With the explosionin communication technology,however,it has come to refer to everything fromelectronic prescribing in its manyvariations,to videoconferences that allowthe pharmacist to dispense and counsel ahundred miles away from the patient,toInternet sites that facilitate prescriptionpurchases,to the equivalent of automatedteller machines (ATMs)that allow patientsto pick up their prescriptions in or outsideof a pharmacy.While these technologiesoffer tremendous opportunities forpatients and for those interested inpromoting the public health,they likewisepose challenges to regulators strugglingto take advantage of innovation whilemaintaining strict standards to protectpatients'well-being and privacy. # Increasing Access The golden promise oftelepharmacy lies in its abilityto potentially increase accessto health care for thosepatients currently unservedor underserved.The LE/LCommittee,in its 2005report,recommended “thatthe practice of telepharmacybe restricted to areas thatare considered medicallyunderserved or as the Boarddeems appropriate."TheCommittee noted some ofthe driving factors behind themove toward telepharmacy,including“an increasinggeriatric population,difficulties in attractinghealth care professionals,andthe closure of existing ruralpharmacies.”" at a distance that are locatedwithin US jurisdictions.” In its report issued in early2005,NABP's Committee onLaw Enforccmcnt/Lcgislation(LE/LCommittee)for2004-2005 recommendedamending the Association'sModel State Pharmacy Actand Model Rules to define the“practice of telepharmacy”as“the provision ofPharmaceutical Care byregistered pharmacies andpharmacists located withinUS jurisdictions through theuse of telecommunicationsand technologies to patients Beyond the generaldefinition,the ever-increasingand changing permutationsof telepharmacy are nowrequiring state boards ofpharmacy to examine theirregulations and policies.Moreover,they must alsoincreasingly take intoaccount interstate issues,as implementation of thefederal Medicare PrescriptionDrug,Improvement,andModernization Act continues At the same time,telepharmacy has thepotential to hold downsome costs in a health careindustry in which pricesseem to spiral out of control.It appeals to state officialsseeking to promote andprotect the public health;it also offers benefits tohealth care systems such asthat of the Veterans Health Administration(VA).As pharmacist Kristie L.Carevic and her colleaguesnoted in abriefevaluationof a VA pilot programthat used telepharmacyto monitor patients onlong-term anticoagulationtreatment,"Telemedicineusing Internet-based,two-way interactive audio/visual technology holds thepromise of making high-quality health services moreaccessible and acceptableto remote patients and lesscostly to their managed careorganizations.” With the current pharmacistshortage heavily impactingrural areas,states with largerural populations havemade particular efforts toinstitute regulations that takeadvantage of telepharmacyand harness it for its greatesteffectiveness.North Dakotain particular has receivedmuch attention in recentyears for its comprehensiveand innovative program torestore and retain pharmacyservices throughout the state. In 2001,the North DakotaState Board of Pharmacypassed rules that allowed apilot telepharmacy project,established in cooperationwith the North Dakota StateUniversity(NDSU)Collegeof Pharmacy and theNorth Dakota PharmacistsAssociation,to go forward.In 2002,the NDSU Collegeof Pharmacy obtained a federal grant from theDepartment of

FAQs

How does telepharmacy improve access to health care?

It can increase access for patients who are currently unserved or underserved by enabling remote pharmaceutical care and counseling through telecommunications and technology.

What challenges does telepharmacy create for regulators?

Regulators must balance innovation with strict standards to protect patients’ well-being and privacy while adapting changing telepharmacy practices.

What policy focus does the document describe for where telepharmacy should be used?

It emphasizes restricting telepharmacy to medically underserved areas, as recommended by relevant committees and state pharmacy boards.

Sep 17, 2026

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