Health Canada NIHB national program update clarification

7/11/2015

There was recently a website update for the NIHB program by Health Canada for pharmacy and dental, two of the benefit areas under buy-back. 

This update by the NIHB program does not affect pharmacists in BC.  Some of the other provinces have introduced legislation to allow pharmacists to initiate prescriptions for conditions not previously assessed by a physician.  There are currently no such regulations by the College of Pharmacists of BC around what is required for pharmacist to initiate a new prescription; in practice, pharmacists in BC cannot prescribe as described by this update. 

For dental, the update mentioned is for replacement dentures only, and that change took effect on November 1, 2013 already.