Senate Bill 2279 amends various sections of the Tennessee Code Annotated related to pain management practices. It introduces a new requirement for the department to identify high-risk prescribers based on clinical outcomes, including patient overdoses, starting July 1, 2017. The criteria for identifying these prescribers will be made publicly available, and those identified as high-risk will be subject to chart reviews and investigations. Additionally, the bill allows for the expungement of a prescriber's high-risk status upon proof of completing required courses. It also clarifies that pain management specialists are exempt from certain high-risk prescriber identification criteria.

The bill further modifies regulations regarding medical directors in pain management clinics, allowing a pain management specialist to temporarily cover for an unavailable medical director without being physically present, as long as they are reachable by phone. It changes the reporting frequency for medical directors from weekly to quarterly and authorizes the commissioner to issue advisory private letter rulings to licensees. Lastly, it mandates that the department publicly disclose all inspection criteria for compliance by pain management clinics on its website.

Statutes affected:
Introduced: 68-1-128(c)(1), 68-1-128, 68-1-128(c)(3)(D), 63-1-306, 63-1-309(c), 63-1-309, 63-1-316, 63-1-316(c)