Safer Prescribing of Controlled Substances Act

II 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 1448 To require certain practitioners authorized to prescribe controlled substances to complete continuing education. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES MAY 14, 2019 Mr. MARKEY (for himself, Mr. BRAUN, and Mr. MANCHIN) introduced the fol- lowing bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions A BILL To require certain practitioners authorized to prescribe controlled substances to complete continuing education. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Safer Prescribing of 4 Controlled Substances Act’’. 5 SEC. 2. CONTINUING EDUCATION REQUIREMENTS FOR 6 CERTAIN PRACTITIONERS PRESCRIBING 7 CONTROLLED SUBSTANCES. 8 Section 303 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 9 U.S.C. 823) is amended— 10 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:25 May 23, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1448.IS S1448 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •S 1448 IS (1) in subsection (f), in the matter preceding 1 paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘The Attorney General 2 shall register’’ and inserting ‘‘Subject to subsection 3 (k), the Attorney General shall register’’; 4 (2) by redesignating subsection (k) as sub- 5 section (l); and 6 (3) by inserting after subsection (j) the fol- 7 lowing: 8 ‘‘(k)(1) In this subsection, the term ‘covered practi- 9 tioner’ means a practitioner that is not a hospital, phar- 10 macy, or veterinarian. 11 ‘‘(2) As a condition of granting or renewing the reg- 12 istration of a covered practitioner under this part to dis- 13 pense, or conduct research with, controlled substances in 14 schedule II, III, IV, or V, the Attorney General shall re- 15 quire the covered practitioner to complete training 16 through accredited continuing prescriber education that 17 the Secretary of Health and Human Services determines 18 meets the requirements under paragraph (3), unless the 19 covered practitioner meets the conditions described in 20 paragraph (6). 21 ‘‘(3) The training provided for purposes of paragraph 22 (2) shall, at a minimum, expose covered practitioners to— 23 ‘‘(A) best practices for pain management, in- 24 cluding responsible prescribing of pain medications, 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:25 May 23, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1448.IS S1448 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •S 1448 IS alternatives to prescribing controlled substances and 1 other alternative therapies to decrease the use of 2 opioids; 3 ‘‘(B) tools to manage adherence and diversion 4 of controlled substances, including prescription drug 5 monitoring programs, drug screening, informed con- 6 sent, overdose education, and the use of opioid over- 7 dose antagonists; and 8 ‘‘(C) best practices for substance use disorder 9 treatment, including methods for diagnosing, treat- 10 ing, and managing a substance use disorder, includ- 11 ing the use of medications approved by the Food 12 and Drug Administration and evidence-based non- 13 pharmacological therapies, and linking patients to 14 evidence-based treatment for substance use dis- 15 orders. 16 ‘‘(4) The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Serv- 17 ices Administration shall establish or support the estab- 18 lishment of not less than 1 training module that meets 19 the requirements under paragraph (3) that is provided— 20 ‘‘(A) to any covered practitioner registered or 21 applying for a registration under this part to dis- 22 pense, or conduct research with, controlled sub- 23 stances in schedule II, III, IV, or V; 24 ‘‘(B) online; and 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:25 May 23, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1448.IS S1448 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 •S 1448 IS ‘‘(C) free of charge. 1 ‘‘(5) The Secretary of Health and Human Services 2 shall establish, maintain, and periodically update a pub- 3 lically available database providing information relating to 4 training modules that meet the requirements under para- 5 graph (3). 6 ‘‘(6) A covered practitioner shall be deemed as com- 7 pleting the training described in paragraph (2) if the cov- 8 ered practitioner completes accredited continuing pre- 9 scriber education, that— 10 ‘‘(A) is required, as a condition of State prac- 11 tice licensure, to fulfill mandated training or edu- 12 cation related to best practices in pain management 13 and substance use disorder treatment, that is sub- 14 stantially similar to the requirements described in 15 paragraph (3); or 16 ‘‘(B) is required, as a condition of maintaining 17 a board certification recognized by the appropriate 18 board certification organizations for the covered pre- 19 scriber to fulfill mandated training or education re- 20 lated to best practices in pain management and sub- 21 stance use disorder treatment, that is substantially 22 similar to the requirement described in paragraph 23 (3). 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:25 May 23, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1448.IS S1448 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 5 •S 1448 IS ‘‘(7) Not later than 5 years after the date of enact- 1 ment of the Safer Prescribing of Controlled Substances 2 Act, the Secretary of Health and Human Services shall 3 evaluate, and make publically available a report describ- 4 ing, how exposure to the training required under this sub- 5 section has changed prescribing patterns of controlled sub- 6 stances.’’. 7 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:25 May 23, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S1448.IS S1448 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS