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Minutes for SB234 - Committee on Public Health and Welfare
Short Title
Requiring electronic prescriptions for controlled substances.
Minutes Content for Fri, Mar 22, 2019
Chairperson Suellentrop opened the meeting by announcing that the committee is suspending any work to be done on SB223 until next session.
Chairperson Suellentrop opened the hearing on SB234.
Tonya McClain presented proponent testimony stating that on behalf of Walmart she supports SB234, an electronic prescribing of opioid prescription drug bill. She stated that communities in Kansas and those across the nation are experiencing a crisis opioid abuse. The bill's date coincides with legislation passed by Congress mandating electronic prescribing for controlled substances covered by Medicare Part D. E-prescribing requires medical providers to send prescriptions directly to pharmacies electronically, instead of providing patients with handwritten prescriptions, faxing prescriptions to pharmacies, or calling in prescriptions. E-prescribing has been shown to reduce medication errors and limit fraud. (Attachment 1)
Scott Abbott, Staff Revisor, gave an overview of the bill.
Alexandra Blasi testified as a proponent stating that the Kansas Board of Pharmacy is very supportive of SB234, as amended by the House in HB2389, but has some concerns regarding the breadth and scope of the term "controlled substance" and the use of "any other narcotic drug"; the time length to implementation and that it just be limited to just opioids. (Attachment 2)
Julie Hein gave proponent testimony and stated that she supports SB234 as amended by the House in HB2389. (Attachment 3)
There were numerous questions by committee members. Rachelle Colombo of the Kansas Medical Society, from the audience, provided some of the answers. Due to the many questions and the fact that SB234 needed to be updated to reflect the House amendments, it was decided to continue the hearing on SB234 until Monday, March 25th, 2019.
