Government Relations
• Record must be at least four years old
• Record must be the licensee’ s only disciplinary record
• Licensee must not be the subject of an active investigation related to professional or occupational conduct
• Licensee must not be in a current disciplinary status and all fees or fines must be paid in full
• Applicant must not have had a previously expunged record.
• Licensee must pay all costs associated with expungement, as established by the Commissioner in regulation
• Expunged records are sealed from public access, allowing the licensee to represent that no record exists. However, BPOA and the licensing board will continue to maintain the records and release it upon request from law enforcement or other governmental body, as permitted by law.
Opioid-Related Legislation
The General Assembly continues to debate dozens of bills aimed at curbing the abuse of prescription drug medication while Governor Wolf took the unprecedented step of issuing a 90-day Opioid Disaster Declaration, allowing state agencies to pool resources together to combat the opioid abuse crisis.
SB 472: Sen. Gene Yaw’ s legislation limits prescriptions for controlled substances containing an opioid to seven days, unless there is a medical emergency that puts the patient’ s health and safety at risk.
SB 391: Sen. Jay Costa’ s legislation amends the Drug and Alcohol Abuse Control Act to require evaluations and treatment if an individual has a substance use disorder, is incapable or unwilling to accept voluntary treatment and poses imminent danger or threat of danger to self or others.
SB 978: Sen. Lisa Baker’ s legislation allows home health and hospice staff to dispose of unused prescription medication. Currently, these medications are the patient’ s property and become part of their estate and cannot be disposed of by non-family.
SB 655: Sen. Gene Yaw’ s legislation requires providers to use state’ s opioid prescribing guidelines for their respective profession.
HB 353: Rep. Todd Nesbit’ s legislation requires prescriptions for Schedule II, III and IV controlled substances be made electronically to reduce the risk of tampering or forgery.
HB 120: Rep. Aaron Kaufer’ s legislation provides up to $ 35,000 in student loan forgiveness for counselors who agree to work for four years in a licensed alcohol and drug addiction facility.
HB 121: Rep. Aaron Kaufer’ s legislation updates anti-drug school curricula to include opioid abuse prevention.
HB 127: Rep. Matt Baker’ s legislation adds Carfentanil as a Schedule II controlled substance.
HB 235: Rep. Katharine Watson’ s legislation establishes a task force on the opioid abuse crisis’ impact on children.
HB 393: Requires prescribers to query the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program( PDMP) every time they prescribe a controlled substance to patients.
HB 575: Rep. Tina Davis’ legislation creates a mandatory state prescription form.
HB 1532: Rep. Kristin Hill’ s legislation allows Medical Assistance managed care organization to have access to the PDMP.
HB 1679: Rep. Eli Evankovich’ s legislation would further integrate the PDMP with electronic health information systems.
“ Dentists helping Dentists” We match dental practices with highly qualified dentists.
Ph: 610-216-2899 Fax: 412-235-7200 faystricklin @ doctorfillin. com www. doctorfillin. com
TM
MAY / JUNE 2018 | PENNSYLVANIA DENTAL JOURNAL 9