In response to the investigation into a Vancouver pain clinic’s practices, Rep. Jim Moeller has introduced a bill that would require more education for prescription providers.
Moeller, a Vancouver Democrat, said in a statement that he was responding to “a growing nightmare in Western Washington and Oregon, very much and very unfortunately including our own Vancouver region.”
The House Health Care and Wellness Committee, of which Moeller is a member, held a hearing Tuesday on House Bill 2391. Moeller said the measure is intended to change Washington’s top national standing in two undesirable rankings: prescription-drug abuse and opiate deaths.
“Although it’s reported that fewer and fewer people are using illegal and fundamentally bad stuff such as meth(amphetamines), heroin and cocaine, more and more folks are abusing ostensibly legal medications such as oxycodone and OxyContin,” Moeller said in a statement. “These opiates in prescription drugs are the source of Washington becoming one of the worst states in the country in terms of opiate deaths.”
Staff members at Vancouver’s Payette Clinic had their licenses to prescribe controlled substances suspended last year after the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Washington Department of Health found that clinic co-owner Kelly M. Bell, a nurse practitioner, and her employees were prescribing “extremely high doses of opioids” to some of the clinic’s patients. The clinic remains open.
After the suspension, several hundred clinic patients turned to hospitals, urgent care centers and treatment facilities to obtain drugs. Many reported they had become addicted to painkillers, and some turned up at local hospital emergency rooms with severe withdrawal symptoms.
In December 2008, an Oregon high school student died after smoking an oxycodone pill that had originally been prescribed by the Payette Clinic to another person.
The problem of prescription painkiller abuse also extends to the state’s pharmacies. Since 2007, the DEA and the U.S. Attorney’s office in Seattle have closed three pharmacies for prescription drug violations. Five physicians and five registered nurses have been convicted of illegally diverting drugs.
Washington law allows nurse practitioners and physician assistants to prescribe the controlled substances.
Under Moeller’s bill, any health care provider licensed to prescribe controlled substances prior to January 2011 would have to complete a pain management course by January 2013. Those licensed prior to this month would have to complete the program before they renew their licenses.
Many prescribers want to provide appropriate help for their patients but lack guidelines, Moeller noted.
“The various professional associations for doctors, nurses, and other health care professionals must be a big part of the solution,” he said. “The Legislature will take action if the associations don’t.”
