S.Amdt. 3365

SA 3365. Ms. COLLINS submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by her to the bill S. 524, to authorize the Attorney General to award
grants to address the national epidemics of prescription opioid abuse
and heroin use; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

In section 101, strike subsection (c)(5) and all that
follows through the end of the section, and insert the
following:
(5) representatives of hospitals;
(6) representatives of--
(A) pain management professional organizations;
(B) the mental health treatment community;
(C) the addiction treatment community;
(D) pain advocacy groups;
(E) groups with expertise around overdose reversal;
(F) State agencies that manage State prescription drug
monitoring programs; and
(G) State agencies that administer grants under subpart II
of part B of title XIX of the Public Health Service Act (42
U.S.C. 300x-21 et seq.); and
(7) other stakeholders, as the Secretary determines
appropriate.
(d) Duties.--The task force shall--
(1) not later than 180 days after the date on which the
task force is convened under subsection (b), review, modify,
and update, as appropriate, best practices for pain
management (including chronic and acute pain) and prescribing
pain medication, taking into consideration--
(A) existing pain management research;
(B) recommendations from relevant conferences and existing
relevant evidence-based guidelines;
(C) ongoing efforts at the State and local levels and by
medical professional organizations to develop improved pain
management strategies, including consideration of
alternatives to opioids to reduce opioid monotherapy in
appropriate cases;
(D) the management of high-risk populations, other than
populations who suffer pain, who--
(i) may use or be prescribed benzodiazepines, alcohol, and
diverted opioids; or
(ii) receive opioids in the course of medical care;
(E) whether the State prescription drug monitoring programs
are sufficiently available, functional, and useful to be
integrated into the process for prescribing pain medication;
and
(F) the Proposed 2016 Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for
Chronic Pain issued by the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (80 Fed. Reg. 77351 (December 14, 2015)) and any
final guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention;
(2) solicit and take into consideration public comment on
the practices developed under paragraph (1), amending such
best practices if appropriate; and
(3) develop a strategy for disseminating information about
the best practices to stakeholders, as appropriate.
(e) Limitation.--The task force shall not have rulemaking
authority.
(f) Report.--Not later than 270 days after the date on
which the task force is convened under subsection (b), the
task force shall submit to Congress a report that includes--
(1) the strategy for disseminating best practices for pain
management (including chronic and acute pain) and prescribing
pain medication, as reviewed, modified, or updated under
subsection (d);
(2) the results of a feasibility study on linking the best
practices described in paragraph (1) to receiving and
renewing registrations under section 303(f) of the Controlled
Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 823(f)); and
(3) recommendations for effectively applying the best
practices described in paragraph (1) to improve prescribing
practices at medical facilities, including medical facilities
of the Veterans Health Administration.
(g) GAO Report on State Prescription Drug Monitoring
Programs.--Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment
of this Act, the Comptroller General of the United States
shall prepare and submit to Congress a report examining the
variations that exist across State prescription drug
monitoring programs. In preparing the report, the Comptroller
General shall determine best practices among State
prescription drug monitoring programs, and examine State
strategies to increase queries to such programs by health
care providers. The Comptroller General shall include in the
report recommendations about how the best practices may be
replicated in other State prescription drug monitoring
programs and whether there should be Federal minimum
standards in place to facilitate access to, requests for data
to, data transmission from, and information exchange among
the programs.
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