SB 1162
Initials AG Page 1 Health & Human Services
ARIZONA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Fifty-fifth Legislature
Second Regular Session
Senate: HHS DP 8-0-0-0 | 3
rd
Read 27-0-3-0
SB 1162: opioid prescriptions; intractable pain; exceptions
Sponsor: Senator Barto, LD 15
Committee on Health & Human Services
Overview
Expands the list of exemptions from the 90-morphine milligram equivalent (MME) limit on opioids
prescriptions to include patients experiencing intractable or chronic intractable pain or receiving
opioid treatment for perioperative surgical pain.
History
Laws 2018, First Special Session, Chapter 1, Sec. 29 outlines requirements for prescribing,
administering and dispensing schedule II-controlled substances. It prohibits a health professional
authorized to prescribe controlled substances from issuing a new prescription order to be filled or
dispensed for a patient outside of a health care institution for a schedule II-controlled substance
that is an opioid and that exceeds 90 MMEs per day and outlines exceptions.
If a health professional believes that a patient requires more than 90 MME per day and the patient
is not included in the statutory exemptions, then the health provider must first consult with a
licensed osteopathic physician or medical doctor board-certified in pain or an opioid assistance
and referral call service designated by the Arizona Department of Health Services. The health
professional may issue a prescription for more than 90 MME per day if the opioid assistance and
referral call service or consulting physician agrees with the higher dose.
If the consulting physician is not available within 48 hours of the request, the health professional
may prescribe the amount that they believe the patient requires and subsequently have the
consultation. Consultation may be done by telephone or through telehealth (A.R.S. § 32-3248.02).
Provisions
1. Exempts patients experiencing intractable or chronic intractable pain or receiving opioid
treatment for perioperative surgical pain from the 90 MME per day limit on opioid prescriptions.
(Sec. 1)
2. Defines chronic intractable as pain that meets both of the following:
a) Is excruciating, constant, incurable and of such severity that it dominates virtually every
conscious moment; and
b) Produces mental and physical debilitation. (Sec. 1)
3. Defines intractable pain to mean a pain state that persists beyond the usual course of an
acute disease or healing of an injury or surgery or that results from a chronic disease or
condition causing continuous or intermittent pain over a period of months or years. (Sec. 1)
☐ Prop 105 (45 votes) ☐ Prop 108 (40 votes) ☐ Emergency (40 votes) ☐ Fiscal Note