Committee Advances Prescription Drug Monitoring Bill

While Friday, Jan. 8, 2016, marked only Day 3 of this legislative session, bills introduced last session remain for consideration and have begun making their way toward a vote.

One such bill, LB 471, that requires dispensers to report certain information to a prescription drug monitoring program, was advanced unanimously out of the Health and Human Services Committee on Thursday, Jan. 7, 2016 by a vote of 7-0. The bill will now go to the floor of the Legislature where it will be considered and voted on by the entire Legislature.

The bill advanced by the committee requires dispensers (including veterinarians) of prescription drugs to report all drugs dispensed to a prescription drug monitoring program within 24 hours of dispensing. It is important to note that we expect an amendment to be filed soon by Senator John Kuehn, DVM that will limit veterinarians' duty to report to only controlled drugs schedule II-IV, and will give veterinarians one additional year to begin reporting to the program. 

The NVMA Board and Legislation Committee have been working with the introducer and co-sponsors of the bill to address the veterinary concerns since this bill was introduced last session. As a part of these on-going conversations, the Board is currently considering a compromise amendment that would create a task force to study and determine the classes of controlled substances to be reported to the prescription monitoring program by veterinarians when dispensing drugs from the veterinary office. Such study shall include appropriate methods and procedures of reporting by the veterinarians with the necessary database field information. Under the proposed compromise, veterinarians would still be a part of the prescription drug monitoring program starting in 2018, leaving time for the Legislature to address any changes suggested by the task force.

The NVMA Board of Directors will hold a special meeting at the NVMA January Conference to discuss this amendment and vote on the direction we want to pursue with this legislation. If you have questions or comments about the legislation or the proposed compromise, please contact your district representative or other board member (click here).