NCGA House Health Committee

The NCGA House Health Committee met on Tuesday, April 28.

The Committee discussed the policy bill recommendation from the House Health COVID-19 Woring Group.

View the previous NCMS Summary on that bill here.

The Committee considered several amendments to the previously approved bill.

Rep. Wayne Sasser’s (R-Stanly) Amendment to allow pharmacists to administer COVID-19 diagnostic tests and antibody tests was withdrawn from the committee.

Rep. Wanyne Sasser’s (R-Stanly) amendment to further clarify prescription identification requirements for pharmacists to use during COVID-19 pandemic and up to 60 days afterwards. This amendment passed unanimously.

Rep. Perrin Jones, MD (R-Pitt) introduced an amendment to remove the criminal liability portion in the previous legislation and to set time limits of the protections to include the State of Emergency declaration. This language was agreed upon as a compromise in order to keep the liability portion included in the bill. This amendment passed unanimously.

Rep. Josh Dobson (R-Avery) introduced an amendment to request that NC DHHS consider North Carolina based businesses that can provide response support to reach rural areas of the state. This amendment passed unanimously.

Rep. Donny Lambeth (R-Forsyth) introduced an amendment at the request of NC DHHS to provide criminal and civil liability protections to the State Health Director and pharmacists providing the COVID-19 vaccination, if the State Health Director issues a statewide order to allow pharmacists to give the vaccine. This amendment passed unanimously.

Rep. Perrin Jones, MD (R-Pitt) introduced an amendment to require providers to report both positive and negative COVID-19 results to the Division of Public Health and the Commission for Public Health. The bill requires NC DHHS to post the results of this data on a county by county basis. This amendment passed unanimously.

The bill as amended passed unanimously in the Committee.