WASHINGTON— U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, today introduced the Protection from Overprescribing Act to provide authorities the information they need to identify and prevent cases of opioid overprescription.
“In Louisiana, there is about one opioid prescription for every person. I and other physicians took an oath to first, do no harm. Some doctors are selling these prescriptions for profit. This is doing harm and it must be stopped,” said Dr. Cassidy. “This legislation gives law enforcement the information they need to identify bad actors and reduce the number of opioids on our streets.”
This legislation incentivizes states to provide prescription drug monitoring information to law enforcement agencies and prescriber licensing boards in order to better identify and cut down on hazardous prescribing habits. This bill requires the U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary to consider a state’s compliance when awarding grants for Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs (PDMP).
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