Senate Bill 2279, also known as House Bill 2572, amends various sections of the Tennessee Code Annotated related to pain management. The bill introduces a new requirement for the department to identify high-risk prescribers based on clinical outcomes, including patient overdoses, starting July 1, 2017. It mandates that the criteria for identifying these prescribers be made publicly available on the department's website. 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 and modifies the terminology from "four-week" to "thirty-day" in relation to prescription limits.

Furthermore, the bill allows pain management specialists to temporarily serve as medical directors in the absence of the primary medical director without requiring in-person presence, as long as they are available by phone. It also changes the reporting frequency for medical directors from "weekly" to "quarterly" and authorizes the commissioner to issue advisory private letter rulings to licensees regarding compliance matters. Lastly, the bill mandates that the department publicly disclose all inspection criteria for pain management clinics on its website. The act is set to take effect upon becoming law.

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)