Pharmacy Brieflys...

• By Laurie Watanabe
• Apr 21, 2023

FSU Law Students: Eliminate Sales Tax on Incontinence Products

Law students at Florida State University (FSU) are supporting a bill that would eliminate sales taxes on adult incontinence products and diapers. A March statement from the FSU Public Interest Law Center said, “This bill will make a big difference for struggling families and seniors on a tight budget. One of every three families struggles to pay for diapers.”

The statement added that 2.7 million Floridians age 65 and older use incontinence products.

The bill would exempt diapers, incontinence garments, incontinence pads, and incontinence liners from sales and use taxes.

In January, the city of Boulder, Colo., eliminated sales tax for diapers, incontinence products, and menstrual products, according to a City of Boulder news announcement.

---

HHS Fact Sheet Outlines Next Steps for PREP Act

The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) has issued a fact sheet to discuss what happens next with the PREP Act.

The Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act contained medical countermeasures intended to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. In the April 14 fact sheet, HHS said HHS Sec. Xavier Becerra “will issue an amendment to the declaration under the PREP Act … The PREP Act declaration has been a key tool for ensuring that Americans have broad access to critical COVID-19 countermeasures, including vaccines, tests, and treatments.”

The fact sheet added that the PREP Act “has provided flexibilities and protections for those individuals and entities who have been involved in providing these critical tools that have helped the United States get to a better place with COVID-19.” That includes pharmacies that have “relied on these flexibilities and liability protections.”

Via his amendment, Becerra will “allow pharmacies to continue their critical roles in our response, even after certain products transition to traditional healthcare pathways.” The fact sheet said the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency — scheduled for May 11 — “does not automatically terminate PREP Act coverage for countermeasures.”