Wyden pain management bill introduced - Brief Article

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., has introduced a bill (S. 941) that he and pharmacists hope will head off any resurrection of an anti-assisted suicide bill. A bill, which would have allowed the Drug Enforcement Administration to go after pharmacists who fill prescriptions of pain killers used in an assisted suicide, passed the House in 1998 and landed on the Senate floor as an amendment to a continuing resolution late in the 1998 session. Wyden managed to pry the assisted suicide amendment out of the bill, much to the relief of pharmacy groups. In doing so, he promised to come back in 1999 with a bill that would focus federal attention on what he and others perceive to be the second-class citizenship of medical pain management. Among other things, Wyden's Conquering Pain Act calls for a General Accounting Office study of insurance company reimbursement of pain medication. The American Pharmaceutical Association calls this provision "of significant importance to pharmacists."

COPYRIGHT 1999 Lebhar-Friedman, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2000 Gale Group