----- Blog Index / Tennessee-Amends-and-Delays-E-Prescribing-Mandate [MDToolbox Staff] [2019-04-11]
Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam recently signed SB0810 into law. This Act mandates Tennessee healthcare providers to electronically prescribe all controlled substances with an effective date of January 1st, 2021. Tennessee had previously passed HB1993 which mandated EPCS for Schedule II drugs by January 1st, 2020. This latest Act makes several changes to the prior legislation:
Tennessee has remained above the national average for opioid-related overdose deaths since 2003, rising even faster than the national trend in number of deaths. While some states have had a flattening or reduction in prescription opioid overdose deaths in recent years, Tennessee has continued to trend upward. The number of deaths from synthetic opioids and heroin had remained stable until 2014, when the numbers began to rise.
Last year, Tennessee passed HB1831: “TN Together Opioid Reform” which made several major strides toward the fight against opioid addiction. The Act budgeted $30 million for prevention, treatment, and law enforcement tasks in relation to the opioid epidemic. The Act also mandated that pharmacies check the State PMP registry. The biggest change has to do with how much of a drug you can get and when. Under the new law, pharmacists can only partially fill a prescription for no more than half of the number of days it’s written for. And there are limits on prescriptions, too: General prescriptions are limited to a 10-day supply (and no more than 500 cumulative morphine milligram equivalents).[1]
Tennessee currently has a 23.5% provider enablement for electronic prescribing of controlled substances, which is well below the national average of 33.4%. Pharmacy enablement for EPCS is 96.7% which is above the current nation average for pharmacies is 95.2%.[2] HB1993, which was passed a year ago would have required EPCS of Schedule II drugs only 8 month from the writing of this blog. There will likely be a big push leading up to 2021 to secure electronic prescribing, MDToolbox encourages providers not to wait!
Tennessee now aligns with several other states mandating electronic prescribing. MDToolbox looks forward to working with providers throughout Tennessee to ease the transition and help provide tools and resources in combating the opioid epidemic. With MDToolbox providers have access to tools such as Electronic Prescribing of Controlled Substances (EPCS) and convenient on the go mobile e-prescribing. Contact us for more information or to start your free 30 day free trial.