GDA Action April May 2020

8 • April/May 2020 FROM THE GC’S DESK SCOTT LOFRANCO GDA General Counsel & VP of Government Affairs Q&A If you have any questions about the information in this column, please email [email protected] or call the GDA office at 404.636.7553 x103. Each month we publish responses to some of the more frequently asked questions by GDA members. We hope you and your staff find this column to be a useful resource. Q: What is the procedure for reporting suspected violations of the state’s opioid prescribing laws? Pursuant to O.C.G.A. §16-13-63(a)(2): “(2) (A) On and after July 1, 2018, when a prescriber is prescribing a controlled substance listed in paragraph (1) or (2) of Code Section 16-13-26 or benzodiazepines, he or she shall seek and review information from the PDMP the first time he or she issues such prescription to a patient and thereafter at least once every 90 days, unless the: (i) Prescription is for no more than a three-day supply of such substance and no more than 26 pills; (ii) Patient is in a hospital or health care facility, including, but not limited to, a nursing home, an intermediate care home, a personal care home, or a hospice program, which provides patient care and prescriptions to be administered and used by a patient on the premises of the facility; (iii) Patient has had outpatient surgery at a hospital or ambulatory surgical center and the prescription is for no more than a ten-day supply of such substance and no more than 40 pills; (iv) Patient is terminally ill or under the supervised care of an outpatient hospice program; or (v) Patient is receiving treatment for cancer. (B) This paragraph shall not become effective unless the department’s certification required by subsection (d) of Code Section 16-13-57 has been issued. (C) A prescriber who violates this paragraph shall be held administratively accountable to the state regulatory board governing such prescriber but shall not be held civilly liable for damages to any person in any civil or administrative action or criminally responsible for injury, death, or loss to person or property on the basis that such prescriber did or did not seek or obtain information from such data base when prescribing such substance.”