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The Alabama Board of Pharmacy faced intense criticism Thursday as lawmakers on the Joint Sunset Committee heard presentations from the many boards they have authority to terminate.
A recent sunset report released by the Alabama Department of Examiners of Public Accounts revealed significant issues with the board, including charging some licensees higher fees than the law authorizes and using deferral agreements to allow for the dismissal of pending violations if the offending licensee pays a higher fine.
The report also found violations of the Open Meetings Act.
“If this committee does not shut this board down immediately, pharmacy in Alabama is over. Period,” said attorney Joseph Kreps. “In 2022, late fees rose to $175,000. That is a 1,005 percent increase. This is not the regulation of a profession; this is organized crime … and it’s extortion.”
The public examiners’ report listed 14 “significant issues” discovered, that included inaccurate reporting of fines collected in addition to unlawful collections of fines and fees.
“Honestly, with this report, we could be here all day,” said Sen. Keith Kelley, R-Anniston. “Extremely, extremely, extremely troubling.”
Other lawmakers grilled the board about its issues.
“I haven’t been on this committee very long, but this is one of the worst reports if not the worst I’ve seen,” said Sen. Sam Givan, R-Huntsville. “I would recommend that the board start working post-haste to remedy these issues.”
Donna Yeatman, executive secretary of the board, assured lawmakers that changes were already being implemented in response to the report.
The report revealed that the board made a switch in 2023 from recording the collection of fines and fees and listing it as “miscellaneous income.”
Yeatman said the change happened because of a new attorney who classified the fines and fees as administrative costs.
“So when it was submitted to the accountant, the accountant didn’t put it in fines and fees because it was written as administrative costs,” Yeatman said. “So it was put into miscellaneous income.
“All that being said, I can now only tell you that, now knowing what we know, should have termed it differently, should have had an individual line item. There was no intention. I look at the bottom line, not necessarily every category. So to me, every dollar was accounted for. And what bucket it was put in, didn’t seem to be an issue, because all of the money was being reported on the financial statement.”
Kreps argued that the switch made it appear that the collection of fines and fees had dropped dramatically.
“In 2023, they attempted to make it seem like the fines had dropped to $198,000 while nearly $600,000 mysteriously appears as miscellaneous income,” Kreps said.
Not everyone agreed that the board is mishandling its duties.
Pharmacist James Jones of Prattville said the board is driven by a “moral compass” to always do what is right.
“The staff, investigators, all the board members, they provide us with continuing education. They’re constantly involved in our professional daily lives,” Jones said. “They keep us informed on the laws that change and even inform us when there’s been medical hearings and doctors have had discipline on their licenses and we don’t need to fill their prescriptions but have no other way to find this out.”
