Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act of 2013

Bill: 113-s-348
Sponsor: Sen. Rockefeller, John D., IV [D-WV]
Introduced: 2013-02-14 in the Senate
Policy area: Health
Subjects: Administrative law and regulatory procedures
Department of Health and Human Services
Drug therapy
Drug trafficking and controlled substances
Drug, alcohol, tobacco use
Executive agency funding and structure
Health care quality
Health facilities and institutions
Health information and medical records
Health personnel
Health programs administration and funding
Health promotion and preventive care
Performance measurement
Prescription drugs

Summary:
action_date: 2013-02-14
text: 
 Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act of 2013 - Amends the Public Health Service Act to direct the Administrator of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to award grants to states and nonprofit entities for consumer education about opioid abuse, including methadone abuse.
 
Amends the Controlled Substances Act to: (1) set forth training requirements for practitioners registered to prescribe or dispense methadone or other opioids, and (2) require each registered opioid treatment clinic to make acceptable arrangements for each patient who is restricted from having a take-home dose of a controlled substance related to treatment to receive a dose of that substance under appropriate supervision when the clinic is closed.
 
Prohibits any individual or entity (except hospitals that provide direct patient supervision) from prescribing or dispensing a 40-mg diskette of methadone unless such prescription or dispensation is consistent with the current Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) methadone policy, until the date the Controlled Substances Clinical Standards Commission: (1) publishes dosing guidelines for methadone, and (2) finds that such 40-mg diskettes are safe and clinically appropriate. Requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to establish such Commission to develop and publish guidelines related to methadone use, including safe dosing guidelines for all forms of methadone and benchmark guidelines for the reduction of methadone abuse.
 
Requires states receiving controlled substances monitoring program grants to: (1) provide information, upon request, to drug enforcement officials relating to an individual who is the subject of an active drug-related investigation; and (2) require opioid-related deaths to be reported to the Administrator. 
 
Directs the Administrator to develop a Model Opioid Treatment Program Mortality Report.
 
Requires the Administrator to establish and implement, through the National Center for Health Statistics, a National Opioid Death Registry to track opioid-related deaths.
 
Requires the Secretary, acting through the Director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), to require the development and application of specific prescription drug abuse prevention and treatment quality measures for each relevant health care provider setting.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2013-02-14
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
action_date: 2013-02-14
text: Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR S779-780)
action_date: 2013-02-14
text: Introduced in Senate