MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE
2005 Regular Session
To: Public Health and Human Services; Judiciary A
By: Representative Guice
AN ACT TO PROVIDE THAT A COMMUNITY PHARMACY, AND THE LICENSED PHARMACISTS AND OTHER VOLUNTEERS WHO WORK IN THE PHARMACY, SHALL BE IMMUNE FROM LIABILITY FOR ANY CIVIL ACTION ARISING OUT OF PROVIDING CHARITABLE OR GRATUITOUS PHARMACEUTICAL PRODUCTS; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:
SECTION 1. (1) Any community pharmacy, any licensed pharmacist who voluntarily provides charitable medical services in a community pharmacy, any pharmaceutical provider, and any other person who serves as a volunteer in a community pharmacy, shall be immune from liability for any civil action arising out of any act or omission in preparing, bottling, or supplying pharmaceutical products in the course of providing charitable or gratuitous pharmaceutical products. This section shall not extend immunity to acts of gross negligence or willful or wanton misconduct.
(2) Any community pharmacy seeking immunity under this section shall post a notice, in a conspicuous place adjacent to the area where prescriptions are picked up by consumers, reading substantially as follows: "NOTICE: If you are harmed by medication that you receive here, you do not have the same legal recourse as you have against other pharmacies." Failure to post the notice negates the immunity from liability provided under this section. The notice shall be no less than eleven (11) by fourteen (14) inches in size, and the type used shall be no smaller than thirty-six (36) point and surrounded by a one-inch solid black border.
(3) For purposes of this section, the following terms shall have the meanings ascribed in this subsection:
(a) "Community pharmacy" means a nonprofit organization qualified or eligible for qualification as a tax-exempt organization under 26 USCS 501, which operates a pharmacy solely for charitable purposes and whose principal function is to supply gratuitous pharmaceutical products.
(b) "Pharmaceutical provider" means a pharmacy, person, corporation, facility, or institution which supplies pharmaceutical products that are prepared or bottled by pharmacists, and that may be handled by an employee, volunteer or agent of the provider acting in the scope and course of his service or employment.
SECTION 2. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2005.