Aug 2, 2017 3 min read

A bill sponsored by U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy, R-18th District, that would give doctors better access to a patient’s history of drug abuse so they could avoid prescribing drugs that might return the patient to the path of addiction was cited by President Donald Trump’s commission given the task of halting the opioid crisis.

The Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis, led by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, presented its 10-page report this week, noting, “Our nation is in crisis.”

The federal Centers for Disease Control estimates 142 Americans die every day from drug overdoses.

The commission proposes a better alignment “through regulation of patient privacy laws specific to addiction with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (known as HIPAA) to ensure that information about substance-use disorders be made available to medical professionals treating and prescribing medication to a patient.” It cites both Murphy’s bipartisan Overdose Prevention and Patient Safety Act and one in the Senate dubbed “Jessie’s Law.”

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., introduced in 2016 and reintroduced this year Jessie’s Law, which would amend the Public Health Services Act to permit disclosure of patient records relating to substance abuse with the patient’s oral consent or the consent of the patient’s parent, legal guardian or spouse.

Jessica Grubb, 30, was the daughter of a former West Virginia state legislator and recovering addict who was sent home from a hospital after routine surgery for a leg injury with a prescription for oxycodone. Manchin wants a case like Grubb’s to be “flagged” so the discharging doctor, who didn’t know her history of addiction despite the fact that she and her family had repeatedly mentioned it while she was hospitalized, could have been alerted and could have prescribed something else for pain. Grubb died March 2, 2016, when she overdosed on the pills.

Jessie’s Law has been referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.

Currently, according to an overview of the Senate bill, disclosure is permitted only with the patient’s written consent.

“Providers and other advocates have found that certain privacy regulations, while well-intentioned patient protections, act as a barrier to communication between providers, can make it difficult for family members to be involved in a loved one’s treatment, and limits the ability to use electronic health records to their full potential,” the report states. “Making it administratively difficult for providers to share information has ill effects on patients in both physical and behavioral health settings by restraining physicians’ ability to make informed health care decisions.

“The average American would likely be shocked to know that drug overdoses now kill more people than gun homicides and car crashes combined, with a death toll of 560,000 people between 1999 and 2015, a figure larger than the entire population of Atlanta. In 2015, nearly two-thirds of drug overdoses were linked to opiates like Percocet, OxyContin, heroin and fentanyl.

“Americans consume more opioids than any other country in the world,” the commission noted.

Records for Pennsylvania show that last year, Washington County had 126 drug overdose deaths, Greene County, 29,

Allegheny, 865, Fayette County, 92, and Westmoreland County, 310.

The rate per 100,000 population translates to Westmoreland, 29; Greene, 25; Allegheny and Fayette, 23; and Washington, 20.