Bill Text: CA AB714 | 2019-2020 | Regular Session | Chaptered

California Assembly Bill 714 (Prior Session Legislation)

Bill Title: Opioid prescription drugs: prescribers.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Passed) 2019-09-05 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 231, Statutes of 2019. [AB714 Detail]

Download: California-2019-AB714-Chaptered.html

Assembly Bill No. 714

CHAPTER 231

An act to amend Sections 740 and 741 of the Business and Professions Code, relating to healing arts, and declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect immediately.

[ Approved by Governor September 05, 2019. Filed with Secretary of State September 05, 2019. ]

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

AB 714, Wood. Opioid prescription drugs: prescribers.

Existing law requires a prescriber, as defined, to offer to a patient a prescription for naloxone hydrochloride or another drug approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration for the complete or partial reversal of opioid depression when certain conditions are present, including if the patient presents with an increased risk for overdose or a history of substance use disorder, and to provide education on overdose prevention to patients receiving a prescription and specified other persons.

This bill would make those provisions applicable only to a patient receiving a prescription for an opioid or benzodiazepine medication, and would make the provisions specific to opioid-induced respiratory depression, opioid overdose, opioid use disorder, and opioid overdose prevention, as specified. The bill, among other exclusions, would exclude from the above-specified provisions requiring prescribers to offer a prescription and provide education prescribers when ordering medications to be administered to a patient in an inpatient or outpatient setting. The bill would exclude from the definition of “prescriber” a person licensed under the Veterinary Medicine Practice Act and would define other terms for purposes of those provisions.

This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

Vote: 2/3 Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: NO

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.

Section 740 of the Business and Professions Code is amended to read:

740.

For purposes of this article, the following definitions apply:

(a) “Administer” means the direct application of a drug or device to the body of a patient by injection, inhalation, ingestion, or other means.

(b) “Order” means an order entered on the chart or medical record of a patient registered in an inpatient health facility by or on the order of a prescriber.

(c) “Prescriber” means a person licensed, certified, registered, or otherwise subject to regulation pursuant to this division, or an initiative act referred to in this division, who is authorized to prescribe prescription drugs. “Prescriber” does not include an person licensed under the Veterinary Medicine Practice Act (Chapter 11 (commencing with Section 4800)).

SEC. 2.

Section 741 of the Business and Professions Code is amended to read:

741.

(a) Notwithstanding any other law, when prescribing an opioid or benzodiazepine medication to a patient, a prescriber shall do the following:

(1) Offer the patient a prescription for naloxone hydrochloride or another drug approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration for the complete or partial reversal of opioid-induced respiratory depression when one or more of the following conditions are present:

(A) The prescription dosage for the patient is 90 or more morphine milligram equivalents of an opioid medication per day.

(B) An opioid medication is prescribed within a year from the date a prescription for benzodiazepine has been dispensed to the patient.

(C) The patient presents with an increased risk for opioid overdose, including a patient with a history of opioid overdose, a patient with a history of opioid use disorder, or a patient at risk for returning to a high dose of opioid medication to which the patient is no longer tolerant.

(2) Consistent with the existing standard of care, provide education to the patient on opioid overdose prevention and the use of naloxone hydrochloride or another drug approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration for the complete or partial reversal of opioid-induced respiratory depression.

(3) Consistent with the existing standard of care, provide education on opioid overdose prevention and the use of naloxone hydrochloride or another drug approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration for the complete or partial reversal of opioid-induced respiratory depression to one or more persons designated by the patient, or, for a patient who is a minor, to the minor’s parent or guardian.

(b) A prescriber is not required to provide the education specified in paragraphs (2) or (3) of subdivision (a) if the patient receiving the prescription declines the education or has received the education within the past 24 months.

(1) When prescribing to an inmate or a youth under the jurisdiction of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation or the Division of Juvenile Justice within the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

(2) When ordering medications to be administered to a patient while the patient is in either an inpatient or outpatient setting.

(3) When prescribing medications to a patient who is terminally ill, as defined in subdivision (c) of Section 11159.2 of the Health and Safety Code.

SEC. 3.

This act is an urgency statute necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within the meaning of Article IV of the California Constitution and shall go into immediate effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:

In order to properly address the health crisis caused by opioid addiction and the loss of life caused by opioid-induced respiratory failure in this state as soon as possible, it is necessary that this bill take effect immediately.