Health insurance companies would for the first time be allowed to access a state government database of citizens’ prescriptions under a new health care proposal being readied by a bipartisan group of lawmakers.
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Missouri s Senate advanced Senate Bill 63 this week in a move to become
the last state in the Nation to create a Prescription Drug
Monitoring Program ( PDMP ). The bill would establish a
Joint Oversight Task Force for Prescription Drug Monitoring, if
adopted by the House of Representatives and signed by Governor
Parson.
The Task Force would be required to contract with a vendor to
operate the PDMP. Further, the state run PDMP would supersede
any local or county PDMP, such as St.
Louis County s PDMP which serves nearly half of Missouri
The bill now heads to Gov. Mike Parson for his signature or veto.
Sen. Holly Rehder, a Sikeston Republican who has sponsored the PDMP bill for the last nine years, watched the vote from the side gallery.
“I’m just so thankful,” she said, wiping tears away. “I’m just very thankful.”
The bill would establish a “Joint Oversight Task Force for Prescription Drug Monitoring,” which would be made up of licensed healthcare professionals, like physicians and pharmacists, who would oversee the creation of a centralized database. The bill is based on the compromise lawmakers reached on last year’s legislation.
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There is help for people suffering addictions in Pennsylvania | Opinion
Updated 9:30 AM;
By Jennifer Smith
According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), there were 5,377 fatal overdoses in Pennsylvania at the height of the opioid overdose crisis in 2017. Those Pennsylvanians represent our loved ones and neighbors – people who battled substance use disorder predominately cast in the shadows due to stigma and lack of resources to live a full, healthy life in recovery.
That is why on Jan. 10, 2018, Governor Wolf issued a first-of-its-kind Disaster Declaration proclaiming heroin and opioid addiction a public health emergency in Pennsylvania and directing specific executive actions to combat the crisis. Since that time, the opioid disaster declaration has been renewed 13 times in a continued effort to curb the opioid overdose epidemic.