Details of bills Wolf supports in opioid addiction package

HARRISBURG >> Gov. Tom Wolf is urging lawmakers to take quick action this fall to pass a package of legislation designed to combat opioid and heroin addiction. The governor’s office has listed six concepts that he supports, most or all of which are already included in bills pending in the Legislature.

• Require prescribers to check the state’s Prescription Drug Monitoring Database every time they prescribe opioids

• Limit the opioid quantities prescribed to emergency room patients to seven days

• Require medical professionals to receive updated education about opioids and pain management

• Require public school students to be taught about opioid misuse

• Require insurers to provide coverage of abuse deterrent opioid formulations

• Require the Department of Health to develop and publish a uniform voluntary non-opioid directive form, which could be used by a patient to deny or refuse the administration or prescribing of an opioid drug by a practitioner.