Bill Text: SC H4603 | 2017-2018 | 122nd General Assembly | Amended
Bill Title: Prescribing limitations
Spectrum: Bipartisan Bill
Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2018-03-27 - Referred to Committee on Medical Affairs [H4603 Detail]
Download: South_Carolina-2017-H4603-Amended.html
AMENDED
March 21, 2018
H. 4603
Introduced by Reps. Bedingfield, Alexander, Dillard, Douglas, Erickson, Fry, Henderson, Hewitt, Huggins, Spires, West, Norrell, Weeks, Rutherford and Atwater
S. Printed 3/21/18--H.
Read the first time January 10, 2018.
A BILL
TO AMEND SECTION 44-53-360, CODE OF LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976, RELATING TO PRESCRIBING LIMITATIONS, SO AS TO LIMIT INITIAL PRESCRIPTIONS OF AN OPIOID MEDICATION FOR ACUTE PAIN MANAGEMENT OR POSTOPERATIVE PAIN MANAGEMENT TO A FIVE-DAY SUPPLY, WITH EXCEPTIONS.
Amend Title To Conform
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:
SECTION 1. Section 44-53-360 of the 1976 Code is amended by adding an appropriately lettered subsection at the end to read:
"( )(1) Initial opioid prescriptions for acute pain management or postoperative pain management must not exceed a seven-day supply, except when clinically indicated for chronic pain, cancer pain, hospice care, palliative care, major trauma, major surgery, treatment of sickle cell anemia, or medication-assisted treatment for substance abuse. Upon any subsequent consultation for the same pain, the practitioner may issue any appropriate renewal, refill, or new opioid prescription.
(2) This subsection does not apply to opioid prescriptions issued by a practitioner who orders an opioid prescription to be wholly administered in a hospital, nursing home, hospice facility, or residential care facility.
(3) A practitioner who acts in accordance with the limitation on prescriptions as set forth in this subsection is immune from any civil liability or disciplinary action from the practitioner's professional licensing board.
(4) As used in this subsection:
(A) 'Acute pain' means pain that a practitioner reasonably expects to last for three months or less, whether resulting from disease, accident, intentional trauma, or other cause. The term does not include 'chronic pain' or pain being treated as part of cancer care, chronic care, hospice care, palliative care, or medication-assisted treatment for substance use disorder.
(B) 'Chronic pain' means pain that typically lasts for longer than three months or that lasts beyond the time of normal tissue healing.
(C) 'Postoperative pain' means acute pain experienced immediately after a surgical procedure.
(D) 'Surgical procedure' means a procedure performed for the purpose of altering the human body by incision or destruction of tissues as part of the practice of medicine such as diagnostic or therapeutic treatment of conditions or disease processes by use of instruments and includes lasers, ultrasound, ionizing, radiation, scalpels, probes, or needles that cause localized alteration or transportation of live human tissue by cutting, burning, vaporizing, freezing, suturing, probing, or manipulating by closed reduction for major dislocations and fractures, or otherwise altering by any mechanical, thermal, light-based, electromagnetic, or chemical means."
SECTION 2. This act takes effect upon approval by the Governor.
