Cassidy’s bill would impose new state grant regulations aimed at ending bad prescription habits

As the nation fights the ongoing opioid addiction crisis, U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA) wants to ensure doctors responsibly prescribe certain controlled substances and on Feb. 26 introduced the Protection from Overprescribing Act, S. 2451.

“In Louisiana, there is about one opioid prescription for every person,” said Sen. Cassidy, who serves on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee. “I and other physicians took an oath to first, do no harm. Some doctors are selling these prescriptions for profit. This is doing harm and it must be stopped.”

Under the bill states would be incentivized to give law enforcement agencies prescription drug monitoring data to help them target those doctors who overprescribe opioids in an unsafe manner.

If enacted, S. 2451 would require the U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary to consider a state’s “analysis and sharing of prescription drug monitoring program [PDMP] data in determining prescription drug monitoring program grants to states,” according to the bill.

State PDMPs use a database to track the controlled substance prescriptions that are dispensed by pharmacies. PDMPs are “among the most promising” state measures to protect patients from opioid addiction, inform medical practice and foster responsible prescribing, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Sen. Cassidy said S. 2451 “gives law enforcement the information they need to identify bad actors and reduce the number of opioids on our streets.”

S. 2451 would require the HHS secretary, when determining whether to award a PDMP grant to a state, to consider if each state agency administering the PDMP is proactively analyzing data available through that program and providing it to law enforcement agencies, prescriber licensing boards and other agencies, according to the summary.

S. 2451 has been referred to the Senate HELP Committee for its consideration.