Maryland expands pharmacist scope to include opioid use disorder treatment
Impact on your practice
This expansion of pharmacist authority in OUD treatment affects therapists' competitive positioning and collaborative care model design. Therapists should understand that pharmacists now have direct prescribing authority for buprenorphine in Maryland, potentially reducing reliance on physicians and creating new inter-professional boundaries. For practices treating OUD, this changes referral patterns and may increase need for clear role definition in collaborative teams.
Key facts
Maryland HB 838 eliminates requirement for prescriber-pharmacist agreements to be filed with health occupations board, streamlining collaborative practice
Authorizes qualified pharmacists to prescribe buprenorphine for opioid use disorder treatment under prescriber-pharmacist agreements
Pharmacists must meet registration, training, protocol requirements and review PDMP data before initiating/modifying controlled substance therapy
Aligns with federal SUPPORT Act (Dec 2025) which explicitly authorized pharmacist buprenorphine prescribing at federal level
Part of broader national trend: 17 states recently proposed expanding pharmacist scope, signaling workforce competition in addiction/chronic disease management
States affected
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