An amended bill was passed Thursday in the Washington State Senate requiring doctors who would prescribe addictive drugs like opioids to first check patient’s prescription history against a database. As InvestigateWest reported, the bill, filed by Washington State Rep. Strom Peterson, D-Edmonds, is intended to prevent people who are addicted to drugs from switching between doctors to get prescriptions for more. According to the Washington Department of Health, 600 people in the state die every year from overdoses of either prescription opioids or heroin.
The amended bill urges medical facilities to use a system whereby patient’s prescription history is easily accessible to doctors. A previous version of the bill was criticized for being inconvenient and time consuming for doctors, requiring more effort from them to track down the information.
The Senate's action sends the bill to Gov. Jay Inslee for his signature.
