Pennsylvania battles opioid addition crisis with slate of new laws

It will be tougher for emergency room doctors in Pennsylvania to prescribe opioids after Gov. Tom Wolf on Wednesday signed legislation that aims to curb the state’s opioid and heroin epidemic. 

The legislation includes five separate bills that will go into effect within the coming months. 

Among the new laws is the Safe Emergency Prescribing Act — House Bill 1699 — which prohibits hospital emergency rooms and urgent care centers from prescribing opioids for longer than seven days and bans refills for opioid prescriptions. Patients with acute conditions, such as cancer, can receive opioids from emergency room doctors to treat pain, but only if the doctor documents that an alternative pain medication was not appropriate, according to the new law. 

Senate Bill 1202, which amends Pennsylvania’s Achieving Better Care by Monitoring All Prescriptions Program Act, requires continuing education for medication prescribers and dispensers related to pain management, addiction and dispensing, and requires prescribers to check the state prescription drug monitoring database every time they prescribe an opioid or benzodiazepine. The bill mandates that physicians enter prescription data to the database within 24 hours of dispensing medications, down from the 72 hours under previous state law. 

These two new laws go into effect on Jan. 1.

Three other bills signed by the governor will now require more training on pain management in medical schools, restrict the ability to prescribe opioids to minors and permit certain facilities to serve as drop-off locations for unused prescription drugs, according to the new laws posted on the governor’s website.