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Legislative Updates
Pennsylvania Medical Society Quarterly Legislative Update September 2016 By HANNAH L. WALSH
W
ith passage of the 20162017 state budget in early July, the General Assembly recessed for the remainder of summer, not to convene again for regular business until September. When they do return, it will be for a limited number of session days before the two-year legislative session concludes at the end of November. The House of Representatives has twelve scheduled session days remaining this year; the Senate has nine.
meeting to vote on bills after the election several years ago amidst sharp criticism and calls for reform. While the General Assembly’s schedule this fall limits the amount of legislation action that can take place, there are a number of current issues that still have potential to move. Any bill that isn’t signed into law when the two-year legislative session concludes at the end of November will have to be reintroduced in the 2016-2017 session to begin the legislative process all over again.
The short schedule this fall is due to the fact that it’s an election year in Pennsylvania. When voters go to the polls to cast their vote Opioid-related legislation for the next President of the United States in November, they’ll also have an opportunity to vote for their local Representative in the The state’s opioid abuse epidemic has state House and possibly their state Senator. continued to intensify, with significantly All 203 House seats and half of the Senate’s higher rates for drug-poisoning deaths in 50 seats are up for re-election in 2016. It’s in Pennsylvania than the U.S. average. A the weeks following the November election report released in July 2016 by the DEA that legislators are considered to be least indicates that 3,383 Pennsylvanians died of accountable to voters. Votes on legislation a drug-related overdose last year – up 23.4 during this time are made by either legisla- percent from 2014. tors who have retired or been defeated for re-election, or who don’t have to face voters In an effort to stem the crisis, many for another two to four years. Commonly states, including Pennsylvania, have enacted referred to as a “lame-duck” session, the mandates on use of a PDMP (Prescription General Assembly stopped the practice of Drug Monitoring Program), mandates on 20 Fall/Winter 2016 Central PA Medicine
prescriber and dispenser education, increased access for naloxone, and measures to expand treatment for substance use disorders. Some states – such as Massachusetts, Maine and New York – have taken a more radical policy approach by restricting the amount of opioids a clinician can prescribe to just a few days’ supply, with specific exceptions. The Pennsylvania legislature is equally eager to take further action to address the proliferation of misuse and abuse of opioid prescriptions in our state. Until measurable reductions are seen in the number of opioid-related harms occurring across the Commonwealth, the number of legislative solutions proposed to this problem and the pressure to enact them will continue to grow. At the time of this writing, over fifty bills have been introduced to address what has become the leading cause of accidental death in Pennsylvania, killing more people each year than motor vehicle accidents. On September 16, Governor Wolf called for a Joint Session of the House and Senate to focus on the opioid epidemic. The Governor also identified several policy priorities that he is encouraging legislative leaders to accomplish during the remainder of the 2015-16 session. The proposals include requiring