Maine to Require Providers Use E-Prescribing and Check Prescription Monitoring Data for Opioids, Benzodiazepine; Law Includes New Limits for Opioid Prescribing
Prescribers and dispensers in Maine will be required to check prescription monitoring information when prescribing and dispensing a benzodiazepine or an opioid medication under “An Act To Prevent Opiate Abuse by Strengthening the Controlled Substances Prescription Monitoring Program” signed into law by Governor Paul LePage on April 19, 2016. Under the law, a person who violates this rule commits a civil violation for which a $250 fine per incident may be adjudged. Specifically, a dispenser must check prescription monitoring information prior to dispensing a benzodiazepine or an opioid medication to a person under any of the following circumstances: the person is not a resident of Maine; the prescription is from a prescriber with an address outside of Maine; the person is paying cash when the person has prescription insurance on file; or the person has not had a prescription for a benzodiazepine or an opioid medication in the previous 12-month period according to the pharmacy prescription record.
Further, the law (SP 671-LD 1646) establishes opioid medication prescribing limits. Prescribers may not prescribe to a patient any combination of opioid medication in an aggregate amount in excess of 100 morphine milligram equivalents of opioid medication per day. In addition, prescribers may not prescribe within a seven-day period more than a seven-day supply of an opioid medication to a patient under treatment for acute pain, and prescribers may not prescribe within a 30-day period more than a 30-day supply of an opioid medication to a patient under treatment for chronic pain. Prescribers will also need to complete three hours of continuing education every two years on the prescription of opioid medication as a condition of prescribing opioid medication. The law also requires all opioid medication to be prescribed electronically by July 1, 2017. Certain sections of the law are effective January 1, 2017.
Filed under: General Problems
Definition of “nanny state” – “the government regarded as overprotective or as interfering unduly with personal choice.”
Definition of “big brother” – “a person or organization exercising total control over people’s lives.”
I do believe both are alive and well and have been renamed the United States government. It’s literally disgusting that any government (whether local, state or federal) can mandate by law limits on medication, particularly medication that can help alieve physical suffering. No government should EVER be allowed to get in between a patient and their doctor and the treatment they both agree to. We’ve been asleep at the wheel and have allowed this government (regardless of party because both parties are at fault) to go down that slippery slope that we should have never allowed them to even start on. Give ’em an inch, they’ll take a mile.
ALERT>>> PASS IT ON: RADIO TALK SHOW HOST DENNIS PRAGER IS DOING A PROGRAM ON THE OPIOD HYSTERIA TODAY. HE HAS SPOKEN OUT AGAINST THE FDA (The Fraud and Drug Administration) WE NEED TO PUSH BACK! EVERYONE NEEDS TO CONTACT HIM TO KEEP PRESSURE ON THIS ISSUE: http://www.dennisprager.com
So if your doctor starts you out to treat your pain and during the 30 days, you and your doctor find the dose is not enough, you have to suck it up for 30 days because you can’t go back for a re-assessment visit where he can write a new script and up the dose…..BARBARIC…..Maine CPP residents need to find a lawyer and sue!!! Since when did the governor and the state legislator get their medical degrees. I can’t understand why there isn’t some attorney out there who isn’t wanting to take a class action ADA/discrimination case for CPP patients
I had a visit with my PCP yesterday and since I can no longer take NSAIDs she put it on my chart. I am a chronic stoner. I told her if I get flack from the ER I would be having them call her or my Urologist even if they were not on call to verify because though the proof was on the CT scan last ER visit, I was still accused of being a drug seeker. It still ruffles my feathers when I think about it…and what may happen if I have to go in again. She agreed with me about PROP and the false spins, and yes there is a problem out there made by a tiny number of people and it’s killed it for the legit patients and doctors are scared to death. I told her about PROP and their conflict of interest with his chain of treatment centers…she did not know about that…but admitted it now makes sense.
Forget whatever you have heard about freedom to travel or Freedom at all if you’re a CPP you can travel but no more than 29 days . Politicians have officially crossed the line and are now practicing medicine .What country am I in ?