Health News
- Beshear Oks Prescription Bill, Telling Pill Mills, 'get Out Of This State'
Saying it couldn't get to his desk quickly enough, Gov. Steve Beshear signed a bill aimed at curbing prescription drug abuse in celebration today, warning so-called pill mills to "Get out of this state, because we're coming after you." House Bill...
- In Bipartisan Way, Political Leaders Push Passage Of 'pill Mill' Bill
A bipartisan group of political leaders issued a call today "to pass a bill that will help the state battle one of its most significant threats ? prescription drug abuse," a press release from Gov. Steve Beshear's office said. Beshear, Attorney General...
- Meds-for-meth, Pain-pill Bills Each Clear A Second Chamber; Both Probably Headed To Conference Committee(s)
"State lawmakers gave new life Wednesday to two bills designed to tackle Kentucky's problems with methamphetamine labs and prescription drug abuse," John Cheves and Jack Brammer report for the Lexington Herald-Leader. "On a 60-36 vote, the House approved...
- Senate Panel Oks Pill-mill Bill With Provision Moving Prescription-monitoring System To Attorney General's Office
Over the objections of the Kentucky Medical Association, a Senate committee today approved a bill that would "transfer oversight of the state?s prescription-monitoring system from the Cabinet for Health and Family Services to the attorney general?s office,"...
- Legislation To Fight Pill Mills Will Need To Strike Balance Between Law Enforcement And Medicine, Panelists On Tv Show Make Clear
By Tara Kaprowy Kentucky Health News The legislation meant to crack down on so-called "pill mills" will turn on striking a balance between thwarting prescription drug abuse and making sure doctors and patients don't feel their hands are tied, it became...
Health News
Senate panel and House OK bills to tackle prescription-bill abuse
Two bills aimed at attacking the state's prescription drug abuse problem made headway yesterday, with a major difference between the House and Senate measures, reflecting possible turf battles between state agencies and doctors' desire to maintain as much control over regulation as they can.
Senate Bill 2 would keep the state drug monitoring system ? known as the Kentucky All Schedule Prescription Electronic Reporting, or KASPER ? the responsibility of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services. House Bill 4 would give it to the attorney general's office.
Senate Bill 2 would keep the state drug monitoring system ? known as the Kentucky All Schedule Prescription Electronic Reporting, or KASPER ? the responsibility of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services. House Bill 4 would give it to the attorney general's office.
The Senate Judiciary Committee approved Senate Bill 2 on an 8-to-1 vote. House Bill 4 passed the full House 81 to 7. The bills' low numbers reflect their importance to legislative leaders in both chambers.
Lawmakers feel the issue will ultimately be taken up near the end of the session in a conference committee, whose members represent the House and Senate and come together to come to an agreement between the two chambers, reports Jack Brammer for the Lexington Herald-Leader.
SB 2 originally required that doctors use KASPER when dispensing narcotics and get a KASPER report before issuing a prescription. At the request of the Kentucky Medical Association, bill sponsor Sen. Jimmy Higdon, R-Lebanon, changed that stipulation, requiring the Kentucky Medical Licensure Board, made up mainly of doctors, to issue regulations on how doctors should use KASPER. Higdon said he made the change in order to get the bill out of committee, a move that angered Sen. Ray Jones, D-Pikeville, who accused the KMA of trying to "gut the bill." (Read more)
HB 4 would still require the use of KASPER, used by only less than a third of doctors, and "would bolster regulation on pain clinics and call on coroners to perform mandatory drug tests in cases of deaths with an unknown cause," reports Tom Loftus for The Courier-Journal. "It also would give commonwealth's and county attorneys access to the data in KASPER and would require that pain clinics be owned by a licensed physician or an advanced practice registered nurse." SB 2 would allow only doctors to own pain clinics, but Sen. Brandon Smith, R-Hazard, said clinics with non-physician owners should be grandfathered in if they have not have previous problems with the law.
As for whether the KASPER should stay in the cabinet or go to the attorney general, Sen. Tom Jensen, R-London, said he doesn't has one strong feeling over the other. "We have to make sure the enforcement is there, whoever is doing it. properly," he told Ryan Alessi on CN|2's "Pure Politics."
- Beshear Oks Prescription Bill, Telling Pill Mills, 'get Out Of This State'
Saying it couldn't get to his desk quickly enough, Gov. Steve Beshear signed a bill aimed at curbing prescription drug abuse in celebration today, warning so-called pill mills to "Get out of this state, because we're coming after you." House Bill...
- In Bipartisan Way, Political Leaders Push Passage Of 'pill Mill' Bill
A bipartisan group of political leaders issued a call today "to pass a bill that will help the state battle one of its most significant threats ? prescription drug abuse," a press release from Gov. Steve Beshear's office said. Beshear, Attorney General...
- Meds-for-meth, Pain-pill Bills Each Clear A Second Chamber; Both Probably Headed To Conference Committee(s)
"State lawmakers gave new life Wednesday to two bills designed to tackle Kentucky's problems with methamphetamine labs and prescription drug abuse," John Cheves and Jack Brammer report for the Lexington Herald-Leader. "On a 60-36 vote, the House approved...
- Senate Panel Oks Pill-mill Bill With Provision Moving Prescription-monitoring System To Attorney General's Office
Over the objections of the Kentucky Medical Association, a Senate committee today approved a bill that would "transfer oversight of the state?s prescription-monitoring system from the Cabinet for Health and Family Services to the attorney general?s office,"...
- Legislation To Fight Pill Mills Will Need To Strike Balance Between Law Enforcement And Medicine, Panelists On Tv Show Make Clear
By Tara Kaprowy Kentucky Health News The legislation meant to crack down on so-called "pill mills" will turn on striking a balance between thwarting prescription drug abuse and making sure doctors and patients don't feel their hands are tied, it became...