Prescription hormonal contraceptive methods are vital to prevention of unplanned pregnancies. New legislation among 23 states has expanded access to contraception. In California, a 2017 law requires pharmacists to dispense year-long supplies of contraception and insurance plans to cover it upon patients' request. This study assesses pharmacist knowledge of this new law 6 months after enactment. From July to November 2017, a random selection of 600 community pharmacies were called requesting a pharmacist (n = 532, 88.7% response). Pharmacists were asked if they had heard of the new law, if they would dispense a year-long supply to cash-pay, privately or publicly insured patients, and what they perceived as obstacles to dispensing year-long supplies. Awareness of this law was assessed through these surveys. Most pharmacists responded they would dispense year-long supplies to cash-pay patients, regardless of knowledge of the new law (81% of "knew", 70% of "did not know", p = 0.1046). The top two perceived obstacles were insurance reimbursement (55.8%) and store policy (13.4%). Despite a new law requiring insurance coverage of a year-long supply of prescription birth control, most pharmacists were unaware at six months after the policy went into effect. Of those who were aware, the majority did not clearly understand it. Compliance among insurance plans is unknown. There was no implementation plan or awareness campaign for the new law.

Background

In response to COVID-19, the AAMC recommended that hospitals conduct interviews in a virtual setting.

Objective

To evaluate whether fellowship video conference interviews (VCIs) are an acceptable alternative to in-person interviews from both the applicant and program perspectives.

Methods

Applicants and faculty from a single academic institution with five OBGYN subspecialty fellowship programs were invited to complete surveys regarding their experience using VCIs during the 2020 interview season. Survey responses used a 5-point Likert scale (strongly disagree to strongly agree). Comparative analyses between faculty and applicants responses to survey questions were performed with two-tailed Student's t-tests.

Results

45 faculty members and 131 applicants received the survey. Response rate for faculty members and applicants was 95.6% (n = 43) and 46.6% (n = 61), respectively. Faculty and applicants agreed that the VCIs allowed them to accurately represent themselves (83.7% vs. 88.6%, p = 0.48). Most applicants (62.3%, n = 38) reported a fundamental understanding of the fellowship's culture. The majority of applicants (77.1%, n = 47) and faculty (72.1%, n = 31) agreed that they were able to develop connections during the virtual interview (p = 0.77). Faculty and applicants stated that VCIs assisted them in determining whether the candidate or program, respectively, was a good fit (83.7% vs. 67.2%, p = 0.98).

Conclusions

The VCI fellowship recruitment process allowed OBGYN fellowship applicants and programs to accurately represent themselves compared to in-person interviews. Most applicants and faculty were able to develop relationships over the virtual platform. Although not explicitly assessed, it is possible that the virtual interviews can achieve a suitable match between applicant and program across all OBGYN subspecialty fellowships. The VCI process may be a long-term resolution to minimize both the financial burden and time commitment presented by traditional in-person interviews. Follow-up studies should assess the performance of the virtually selected fellows compared to those selected in previous years using traditional in-person interviews.