10/10/2016

Cuomo Vetoes 2 of 3 E-Prescribing Bills

Governor Andrew Cuomo vetoed 2 of 3 bills designed to modify and make it easier for either patients or prescribers to follow the NYS e-prescribing laws.  The 3rd bill that the governor did sign reduces the requirements when using a non-electronic prescription. 

The first bill (A9837) would have created a secure database site supervised by the Department of Health that would have allowed any pharmacy to download the prescription, so patients would have a choice of where they'd like a prescription filled after leaving the prescriber's office. In his veto message, Cuomo said that the creation of a database "carries significant security risks and unacceptably large costs that outweigh its limited potential benefit."

A second bill (S6778) would have allowed verbal prescriptions for patients in nursing homes because many of those facilities do not have a physician on staff full-time yet they constantly require new medications for their patients.
In his veto message, Cuomo said, "During this critical time, when abuse of controlled substances is at epidemic proportions, this proposed legislation would create a loophole that would undermine ongoing efforts to mitigate overprescribing, reduce fraud, and abuse, and promote sound mechanism for the transmittal of prescription drugs," Cuomo said in his veto message.
But in an effort to cater to nursing homes and residential care facilities, Cuomo is instructing the health commissioner to extend a waiver from the requirements through Oct 31, 2017.

The governor signed a third bill (A.9335) that permits health care practitioners to make note in the patient's chart, rather than being required to notify the health department by e-mail, each time they issue a non-electronic prescription under certain statutory conditions. The law currently provides for three occasions (a temporary electrical or technical failure; any delay that would adversely impact a patient's health; or when the prescription would be filled out of state) when a prescriber issues a non-electronic prescription but requires the prescriber to file information with the Department of Health "as soon as practicable." The filing requirement is causing confusion, and resulting in lengthy and burdensome reporting of details not relevant to patient care. It is estimated over 7 million prescriptions annually could have required reporting to the DOH.

View Cuomo's veto messages here: http://politi.co/2dh7R8Y