Dangerous Pain Pills, What Florida's New Law Says

Review the full bill (HB 7095) here.

Dear FSA Member:

To assist us in educating the public about the new prescription controlled substances bill passed by the Legislature, please distribute the consumer information on page 2 to your patients. You can post this in your office or use it as a handout for patients. It is vital that the public is educated on what the law says and what each person can do to prevent abuse.
Thank you in advance!

Sincerely,
Sonya Pease, M.D.
President
Florida Society of Anesthesiologists

Dangerous Pain Pills, What Florida's New Law Says

You may have read about the Florida Legislature's efforts to fight abuse of certain prescription drugs, known as prescription controlled substances. An example is the pain killer oxycodone. Among other things, the bill does the following:

• Allows funding of a prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP) from private and federal grants. The PDMP is a database that doctors may use and pharmacists must use to enter information about patients to whom they prescribe and for whom they fill these prescriptions. This will help prevent abuse and drug trafficking. The bill will make the program compliant with the National All Schedules Prescription Electronic Reporting Act (NASPER), which provides funding. Also, Florida's attorney general has said that forfeited money from people operating illegal pain clinics will be used to fund the PDMP.
• Doctors and pharmacists will now have to enter prescription information into the database within seven days.
• Establishes harsher criminal penalties than the previous bill for doctors who over-prescribe.
• To ease privacy concerns, the bill allows law enforcement to access the database only as part of an investigation.
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Physician Anesthesiologists Credit Governor for Listening, Moving Forward to Stop Pill Mills

Tallahassee, Fl - After three years of intense advocacy by the Florida Society of Anesthesiologists and other organizations, and watching seven people per day die of prescription drug overdoses in Florida, the way has been cleared for Florida's Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) to take effect.

FSA would especially like to recognize Governor Rick Scott, who listened to concerns from us and others, and has decided to support the PDMP after first opposing it because of privacy issues.  The governor's open-mindedness has been a key toward getting the issue moving forward again.

• Read More on Stopping Pill Mills

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TAMPA - It may be months before it's known for sure why a seemingly healthy 49-year-old St. Petersburg man died Friday after going to a surgery center for a simple hernia repair procedure. But a local expert says the case should not lead anyone to conclude that it is not safe to have surgery in an outpatient facility rather than a hospital, as Spiro Gogas did.

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News Media Interviews FSA's Rafael Miguel, MD on Pain Clinic Issue

The news media in Florida continues to seek out FSA expertise.  As an example, Rafael Miguel, MD, has done several interviews recently on the issue of shutting down pain clinics that illegally distribute pain medication.

On October 5th, Dr. Miguel was interviewed by Bay News 9 Tampa Bay in the story "County Ordinance Targeting Pain Clinics Under Scrutiny"

Dr. Miguel was quoted as saying that a new Hillsborough County ordinance cracking down on the clinics means unnecessary additional fees and inspections, since the state has just passed a law restricting the clinics as well.  Dr. Miguel is one of the leading experts in Florida on the pain legislation and was instrumental in getting the state law passed.

Dr. Miguel was also interviewed by WTVT Tampa Bay on National Pain Awareness Month and The Pain Truth campaign, which helps the public separate the good from the bad pain clinics.

The national morning show "The Daily Buzz" interviewed Dr. Miguel on September 23rd, also commemorating September as "National Pain Awareness Month".

All media links used with permission.