On Tuesday January 10th, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie delivered his annual State of the State address, focusing, in large part, on the state’s growing need to fight drug addiction, including combating heroin and opiate abuse and helping addicts find treatment. Amongst other proposals, Governor Christie directed the state’s attorney general to use emergency authority to limit the supply of opioid-based pain medications by health care providers from thirty (30) days to five (5) days for people filling an initial prescription. Efforts such as this are paralleled with legislation simultaneously being enacted in the state, including, for example, a bill that passed the state’s Assembly in late December 2016, which would require doctors to discuss the addictive properties of opioids with a parent or guardian before prescribing them to a minor. This bill now heads to Governor Christie’s desk for approval. Significant attention to the “opioid epidemic” is triggered a focus on regulating prescribing practices of physicians treating patients with chronic pain. In this environment, it is imperative for practitioners to conduct an audit of their pain management and opioid prescribing practices and make it a priority to ensure that they remain in compliance with rapidly developing federal and state standards related to the use of narcotics in their clinical practices.
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