II 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 1448 

To require certain practitioners authorized to prescribe controlled substances 

to complete continuing education. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MAY 14, 2019 

Mr. MARKEY (for himself, Mr. BRAUN, and Mr. MANCHIN) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on 

Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions 

A BILL 

To require certain practitioners authorized to prescribe 

controlled substances to complete continuing education. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Safer Prescribing of 

5 Controlled Substances Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. CONTINUING EDUCATION REQUIREMENTS FOR 

7 CERTAIN PRACTITIONERS PRESCRIBING 

8 CONTROLLED SUBSTANCES. 

9 Section 303 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 

10 U.S.C. 823) is amended— 


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1 (1) in subsection (f), in the matter preceding 

2 paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘The Attorney General 

3 shall register’’ and inserting ‘‘Subject to subsection 

4 (k), the Attorney General shall register’’; 

5 (2) by redesignating subsection (k) as sub6 section (l); and 

7 (3) by inserting after subsection (j) the fol8 lowing: 

9 ‘‘(k)(1) In this subsection, the term ‘covered practi10 tioner’ means a practitioner that is not a hospital, phar11 macy, or veterinarian. 

12 ‘‘(2) As a condition of granting or renewing the reg13 istration of a covered practitioner under this part to dis14 pense, or conduct research with, controlled substances in 

15 schedule II, III, IV, or V, the Attorney General shall re16 quire the covered practitioner to complete training 

17 through accredited continuing prescriber education that 

18 the Secretary of Health and Human Services determines 

19 meets the requirements under paragraph (3), unless the 

20 covered practitioner meets the conditions described in 

21 paragraph (6). 

22 ‘‘(3) The training provided for purposes of paragraph 

23 (2) shall, at a minimum, expose covered practitioners to— 

24 ‘‘(A) best practices for pain management, in25 cluding responsible prescribing of pain medications, 


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1 alternatives to prescribing controlled substances and 

2 other alternative therapies to decrease the use of 

3 opioids; 

4 ‘‘(B) tools to manage adherence and diversion 

5 of controlled substances, including prescription drug 

6 monitoring programs, drug screening, informed con7 sent, overdose education, and the use of opioid over8 dose antagonists; and 

9 ‘‘(C) best practices for substance use disorder 

10 treatment, including methods for diagnosing, treat11 ing, and managing a substance use disorder, includ12 ing the use of medications approved by the Food 

13 and Drug Administration and evidence-based non14 pharmacological therapies, and linking patients to 

15 evidence-based treatment for substance use dis16 orders. 

17 ‘‘(4) The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Serv18 ices Administration shall establish or support the estab19 lishment of not less than 1 training module that meets 

20 the requirements under paragraph (3) that is provided— 

21 ‘‘(A) to any covered practitioner registered or 

22 applying for a registration under this part to dis23 pense, or conduct research with, controlled sub24 stances in schedule II, III, IV, or V; 

25 ‘‘(B) online; and 


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1 ‘‘(C) free of charge. 

2 ‘‘(5) The Secretary of Health and Human Services 

3 shall establish, maintain, and periodically update a pub4 lically available database providing information relating to 

5 training modules that meet the requirements under para6 graph (3). 

7 ‘‘(6) A covered practitioner shall be deemed as com8 pleting the training described in paragraph (2) if the cov9 ered practitioner completes accredited continuing pre10 scriber education, that— 

11 ‘‘(A) is required, as a condition of State prac12 tice licensure, to fulfill mandated training or edu13 cation related to best practices in pain management 

14 and substance use disorder treatment, that is sub15 stantially similar to the requirements described in 

16 paragraph (3); or 

17 ‘‘(B) is required, as a condition of maintaining 

18 a board certification recognized by the appropriate 

19 board certification organizations for the covered pre20 scriber to fulfill mandated training or education re21 lated to best practices in pain management and sub22 stance use disorder treatment, that is substantially 

23 similar to the requirement described in paragraph 

24 (3). 


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1 ‘‘(7) Not later than 5 years after the date of enact2 ment of the Safer Prescribing of Controlled Substances 

3 Act, the Secretary of Health and Human Services shall 

4 evaluate, and make publically available a report describ5 ing, how exposure to the training required under this sub6 section has changed prescribing patterns of controlled sub7 stances.’’. 

Æ 


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