Kevin’s Law and Expanding Pharmacist Scope of Practice

Over the 2013 New Year’s holiday, Kevin Houdeshell, a 36-year-old living with type 1 diabetes in Ohio, ran out of insulin and could not reach his doctor to get a new prescription to his pharmacy, a necessary step for all prescription medicines in the United States. Kevin began rationing what he had left and days later, he passed away.

Certain chronic illnesses, like diabetes, require regular maintenance medication to prevent dramatic or even life-threatening outcomes.

Kevin’s Laws, under broader emergency prescription refill statutes or expansions of pharmacist scope of practice, allow pharmacists to use their professional judgement to dispense an emergency supply of chronic maintenance medicines, like insulin, when a prescriber cannot be reached. Versions of Kevin’s laws have passed in 25 states. Many other states have emergency dispensing rules on the books but pharmacists and patients often do not know they exist.