TITLE FORTY-EIGHT, PRESCRIPTION DRUG PRICE INFORMATION Title 48, Chapter 8(1), Subchapter II regulates what information pharmacies are required to post. The Office of Consumer Protection (“OCP”) is responsible for furnishing each pharmacy with a poster that contains information about the 100 most commonly used prescription drugs and a list of professional and convenience services available, among other things.85 Free language assistance services for LEP/NEP consumers could be added to the list of services under Section 48-801.02(4). The new provision could also require that OCP translate all of the services into all of the primary languages spoken by LEP/ NEP consumers. Language assistance could be integrated in other subsections of Title Forty-eight, including the subsections on “Completion and Display of Posters”86 and “Definitions.”87 The “Completion and Display of Posters” can be modified as follows: On and after each issue date, each pharmacy shall legibly post on the poster its current selling prices for the 100 most commonly used prescription drugs, the professional and convenience services it offers and the additional charges therefor, the rights to free language assistance services for Limited English Proficient individuals as provided for in § 47-2885 in all of the pharmacy primary languages, and the eligibility and terms of any discount it offers on prescription drugs. The completed poster shall be displayed prominently in the immediate vicinity of the prescription drug service area in such a manner as to be easily visible to consumers without having to obtain permission or assistance of an employee of the pharmacy. The “Definitions” subsection can be modified as follows: (12) “Language assistance services” shall mean competent oral interpretation and translation of documents; (13) “Limited English Proficient individual” or “LEP/NEP individual” shall mean an individual who identifies as being, or is evidently, unable to speak, read or write English at a level that permits him/her to understand health-related and pharmaceutical information; and (14) “Pharmacy primary languages” shall refer to the languages spoken by 1% or more of the pharmacy’s customers as determined by the pharmacy’s prescription-management system for the previous year, beginning one year after the effective date of this section.
85 D.C. Code § 48-801.02 (2012). 86 D.C. Code § 48-801.03 (2012). Enforcement of this section is already provided for under “Enforcement” at § 48-804.01. 87 D.C. Code § 48-804.51 (2012).
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