Mattiello Introduces Bill Allowing Partial-Fill Prescription Option on Opioids

GoLocalProv News Team

Mattiello Introduces Bill Allowing Partial-Fill Prescription Option on Opioids

Speaker of the House Nicholas Mattiello has introduced legislation that would give patients the option of having their prescription for painkillers only partially filled.

“The opioid epidemic is one of the biggest tragedies of our time, and finding new ways to tackle it continues to be a challenge. This legislation will allow and encourage prescribers, patients, and pharmacists to work together, and empower patients to limit the number of unused pills that are left in their medicine chests, which is where opioid addiction begins,” said Mattiello.

The Legislation

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The bill would allow a pharmacist to dispense a partial fill of a Schedule II controlled substance at the request of either the patient or the prescriber.

Under the provisions of Mattiello's bill, subsequent fills would have to be dispensed at the same pharmacy where the original prescription was partially filled, and the total quantity dispensed could not exceed the total quantity prescribed.

After 30 days, the prescription would expire.

“One of the things we’ve heard about the opioid crisis from the Centers for Disease Control is that almost 80 percent of people who are at the highest risk of overdose initially acquired pills that were legally prescribed to someone — either themselves, a friend of a relative. This is an important step in reducing the number of pills that are out there,” added Mattiello. 

Pharmacists would also be required to record only the actual amounts of the drug dispensed in the state’s prescription-drug-monitoring program maintained by the Department of Health.


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