Two bills, which would allow medical professionals who aren’t doctors greater latitude in serving patients, are advancing in the Senate. Taken together, the bills would help reduce health care costs by freeing up pharmacists, physician assistants, and nurse practitioners to perform more basic services. House Bill 96 would allow pharmacists to administer injectable drugs to patients with a prescription. Pharmacists can already give vaccines under N.C. law, such as the flu shot or COVID vaccine. Should the bill pass, the N.C. Board of Pharmacy and the N.C. Medical Board would draw rules for what sorts of drugs pharmacists would be permitted to administer and what record-keeping requirements would be needed, by April 2022 at the latest.