I
118THCONGRESS
2
DSESSION H. R. 7312
To provide for requirements for electronic-prescribing for controlled sub-
stances under group health plans and group and individual health insur-
ance coverage.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY9, 2024
Ms. K
USTER(for herself, Mr. BALDERSON, and Ms. LETLOW) introduced the
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Com-
merce, and in addition to the Committees on Education and the Work-
force, Ways and Means, and the Judiciary, for a period to be subse-
quently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such
provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
A BILL
To provide for requirements for electronic-prescribing for
controlled substances under group health plans and
group and individual health insurance coverage.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Electronic Prescribing 4
for Controlled Substances Act’’ or the ‘‘EPCS 2.0 Act’’. 5
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SEC. 2. REQUIREMENTS FOR ELECTRONIC-PRESCRIBING 1
FOR CONTROLLED SUBSTANCES UNDER 2
GROUP HEALTH PLANS AND GROUP AND IN-3
DIVIDUAL HEALTH INSURANCE COVERAGE. 4
(a) P
UBLICHEALTHSERVICEACTAMENDMENT.— 5
Section 2799A–7 of the Public Health Service Act (42 6
U.S.C. 300gg–117) is amended by adding at the end the 7
following new subsection: 8
‘‘(d) R
EQUIREMENTS FOR ELECTRONIC-PRE-9
SCRIBING FORCONTROLLEDSUBSTANCES.— 10
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Except as provided pursu-11
ant to paragraph (2), for plan years beginning on or 12
after January 1, 2026, a group health plan and a 13
health insurance issuer offering group or individual 14
health insurance coverage, with respect to a partici-15
pating provider, as defined in section 2799–1(a)(3), 16
shall have in place policies, subject to paragraphs 17
(4) and (5), that require any prescription for a 18
schedule II, III, IV, or V controlled substance (as 19
defined by section 202 of the Controlled Substances 20
Act) covered by the plan or coverage that is trans-21
mitted by such a participating provider for such a 22
participant, beneficiary, or enrollee be electronically 23
transmitted consistent with standards established 24
under paragraph (3) of section 1860D–4(e) of the 25
Social Security Act, under an electronic prescription 26
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drug program that meets requirements that are sub-1
stantially similar (as jointly determined by the Sec-2
retary, the Secretary of Labor, and the Secretary of 3
the Treasury) to the requirements of paragraph (2) 4
of such section 1860D–4(e). 5
‘‘(2) E
XCEPTION FOR CERTAIN CIR -6
CUMSTANCES.—The Secretary, the Secretary of 7
Labor, and the Secretary of the Treasury shall joint-8
ly, through rulemaking, specify circumstances and 9
processes by which the requirement under paragraph 10
(1) may be waived, with respect to a schedule II, III, 11
IV, or V controlled substance that is a prescription 12
drug covered by a group health plan or group or in-13
dividual health insurance coverage offered by a 14
health insurance issuer, including in the case of— 15
‘‘(A) a prescription issued when the par-16
ticipating provider and dispensing pharmacy are 17
the same entity; 18
‘‘(B) a prescription issued that cannot be 19
transmitted electronically under the most re-20
cently implemented version of the National 21
Council for Prescription Drug Programs 22
SCRIPT Standard; 23
‘‘(C) a prescription issued by a partici-24
pating provider who received a waiver (which 25
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may include a waiver obtained pursuant to sec-1
tion 1860D–4(e)(7)(B)(iii) of the Social Secu-2
rity Act) or a renewal thereof for a period of 3
time as determined by the Secretary, the Sec-4
retary of Labor, and the Secretary of the 5
Treasury, not to exceed one year, from the re-6
quirement to use electronic prescribing due to 7
demonstrated economic hardship, technological 8
limitations that are not reasonably within the 9
control of the participating provider, or other 10
exceptional circumstance demonstrated by the 11
participating provider; 12
‘‘(D) a prescription issued by a partici-13
pating provider under circumstances in which, 14
notwithstanding the participating provider’s 15
ability to submit a prescription electronically as 16
required by this subsection, such participating 17
provider reasonably determines that it would be 18
impractical for the individual involved to obtain 19
substances prescribed by electronic prescription 20
in a timely manner, and such delay would ad-21
versely impact the individual’s medical condition 22
involved; 23
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‘‘(E) a prescription issued by a partici-1
pating provider prescribing a drug under a re-2
search protocol; 3
‘‘(F) a prescription issued by a partici-4
pating provider for a drug for which the Food 5
and Drug Administration requires a prescrip-6
tion to contain elements that are not able to be 7
included in electronic prescribing, such as a 8
drug with risk evaluation and mitigation strate-9
gies that include elements to assure safe use; 10
‘‘(G) a prescription issued for an individual 11
who receives hospice care or for a resident of a 12
nursing facility (as defined in section 1919(a) 13
of the Social Security Act); 14
‘‘(H) a prescription issued under cir-15
cumstances in which electronic prescribing is 16
not available due to temporary technological or 17
electrical failure, as specified jointly by the Sec-18
retary, the Secretary of Labor, and the Sec-19
retary of the Treasury through rulemaking; and 20
‘‘(I) a prescription issued by a partici-21
pating provider allowing for the dispensing of a 22
non-patient specific prescription pursuant to a 23
standing order, approved protocol for drug ther-24
apy, collaborative drug management, or com-25
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prehensive medication management, in response 1
to a public health emergency or other cir-2
cumstances under which the participating pro-3
vider may issue a non-patient specific prescrip-4
tion. 5
‘‘(3) R
ULES OF CONSTRUCTION .— 6
‘‘(A) V
ERIFICATION.—Nothing in this sub-7
section shall be construed as requiring a dis-8
penser to verify that a participating provider, 9
with respect to a prescription for a schedule II, 10
III, IV, or V controlled substance that is a pre-11
scription drug covered by a group health plan 12
or group or individual health insurance cov-13
erage offered by a health insurance issuer, has 14
a waiver (or is otherwise exempt) under para-15
graph (2) from the requirement under para-16
graph (1). 17
‘‘(B) A
UTHORITY TO DISPENSE .—Nothing 18
in this subsection shall be construed as affect-19
ing the authority of a group health plan or 20
group or individual health insurance coverage 21
offered by a health insurance issuer to cover, or 22
the authority of a dispenser to continue to dis-23
pense, a prescription drug if the prescription 24
for such drug is an otherwise valid written, 25
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oral, or fax prescription that is consistent with 1
applicable law. 2
‘‘(C) P
ATIENT CHOICE.—Nothing in this 3
subsection shall be construed as affecting the 4
ability of an individual who is a participant, 5
beneficiary, or enrollee of a group health plan 6
or group or individual health insurance cov-7
erage offered by a health insurance issuer and 8
who is prescribed a schedule II, III, IV, or V 9
controlled substance that is a prescription drug 10
covered by the plan or coverage to designate a 11
particular dispenser to dispense a prescribed 12
controlled substance to the extent consistent 13
with the requirements under this subsection. 14
‘‘(4) R
EGULATIONS ON POLICY REQUIRE -15
MENTS.—The Secretary, the Secretary of Labor, 16
and the Secretary of the Treasury shall promulgate 17
regulations specifying requirements for the policies 18
established by group health plans and health insur-19
ance issuers under paragraph (1). Such regulations 20
shall include requirements for— 21
‘‘(A) a uniform process by which plans and 22
issuers are required to set the e-prescribing re-23
quirements; 24
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‘‘(B) a process by which plans and issuers 1
are required to grant waivers and exceptions to 2
participating providers pursuant to paragraph 3
(2); and 4
‘‘(C) a mechanism for plans and issuers to 5
recognize waivers issued to participating pro-6
viders under part D of title XVIII of the Social 7
Security Act, pursuant to paragraph (2)(C). 8
‘‘(5) P
ROHIBITIONS.—The policies established 9
pursuant to paragraph (1) by a group health plan or 10
health insurance issuer offering group or individual 11
health insurance coverage may not— 12
‘‘(A) require dispensers of a schedule II, 13
III, IV, or V controlled substance to confirm 14
that the prescription for the controlled sub-15
stance was electronically issued by a partici-16
pating provider in accordance with such poli-17
cies, as described in paragraph (1); 18
‘‘(B) require dispensers of such controlled 19
substances to submit information or data be-20
yond what is otherwise required to process a 21
prescription drug claim in order to confirm a 22
participating provider’s compliance with such 23
policies; 24
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‘‘(C) reject, deny, or recoup reimbursement 1
for a prescription drug claim based on the for-2
mat in which the prescription was issued; or 3
‘‘(D) require a participating provider to 4
use a specific vendor for electronic prescribing 5
or a specific electronic prescribing product or 6
system. 7
‘‘(6) A
TTESTATION OF COMPLIANCE .—Begin-8
ning on January 1, 2026, each group health plan 9
and health insurance issuer offering group or indi-10
vidual health insurance coverage shall annually sub-11
mit to the Secretary, the Secretary of Labor, and 12
the Secretary of the Treasury an attestation of com-13
pliance with the requirements of this subsection. 14
‘‘(7) C
ONSULTATION REQUIREMENT FOR RULE -15
MAKING.—In promulgating regulations to carry out 16
this subsection, the Secretary, the Secretary of the 17
Labor, and the Secretary of the Treasury shall joint-18
ly consult with dispensers of controlled substances, 19
State insurance regulators, health insurance issuers 20
offering group or individual health insurance cov-21
erage, and health care practitioners.’’. 22
(b) E
MPLOYEERETIREMENTINCOMESECURITYACT 23
OF1974 AMENDMENT.—Section 722 of the Employee Re-24
tirement Income Security Act of 1974 (29 U.S.C. 1185k) 25
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is amended by adding at the end the following new sub-1
section: 2
‘‘(d) R
EQUIREMENTS FOR ELECTRONIC-PRE-3
SCRIBING FORCONTROLLEDSUBSTANCES.— 4
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Except as provided pursu-5
ant to paragraph (2), for plan years beginning on or 6
after January 1, 2026, a group health plan and a 7
health insurance issuer offering group health insur-8
ance coverage, with respect to a participating pro-9
vider, as defined in section 716(a)(3), shall have in 10
place policies, subject to paragraphs (4) and (5), 11
that require any prescription for a schedule II, III, 12
IV, or V controlled substance (as defined by section 13
202 of the Controlled Substances Act) covered by 14
the plan or coverage that is transmitted by such a 15
participating provider for such a participant or bene-16
ficiary be electronically transmitted consistent with 17
standards established under paragraph (3) of section 18
1860D–4(e) of the Social Security Act, under an 19
electronic prescription drug program that meets re-20
quirements that are substantially similar (as jointly 21
determined by the Secretary, the Secretary of 22
Health and Human Services, and the Secretary of 23
the Treasury) to the requirements of paragraph (2) 24
of such section 1860D–4(e). 25
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‘‘(2) EXCEPTION FOR CERTAIN CIR -1
CUMSTANCES.—The Secretary, the Secretary of 2
Health and Human Services, and the Secretary of 3
the Treasury shall jointly, through rulemaking, 4
specify circumstances and processes by which the re-5
quirement under paragraph (1) may be waived, with 6
respect to a schedule II, III, IV, or V controlled sub-7
stance that is a prescription drug covered by a group 8
health plan or group health insurance coverage of-9
fered by a health insurance issuer, including in the 10
case of— 11
‘‘(A) a prescription issued when the par-12
ticipating provider and dispensing pharmacy are 13
the same entity; 14
‘‘(B) a prescription issued that cannot be 15
transmitted electronically under the most re-16
cently implemented version of the National 17
Council for Prescription Drug Programs 18
SCRIPT Standard; 19
‘‘(C) a prescription issued by a partici-20
pating provider who received a waiver (which 21
may include a waiver obtained pursuant to sec-22
tion 1860D–4(e)(7)(B)(iii) of the Social Secu-23
rity Act) or a renewal thereof for a period of 24
time as determined by the Secretary, the Sec-25
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retary of Health and Human Services, and the 1
Secretary of the Treasury, not to exceed one 2
year, from the requirement to use electronic 3
prescribing due to demonstrated economic hard-4
ship, technological limitations that are not rea-5
sonably within the control of the participating 6
provider, or other exceptional circumstance 7
demonstrated by the participating provider; 8
‘‘(D) a prescription issued by a partici-9
pating provider under circumstances in which, 10
notwithstanding the participating provider’s 11
ability to submit a prescription electronically as 12
required by this subsection, such participating 13
provider reasonably determines that it would be 14
impractical for the individual involved to obtain 15
substances prescribed by electronic prescription 16
in a timely manner, and such delay would ad-17
versely impact the individual’s medical condition 18
involved; 19
‘‘(E) a prescription issued by a partici-20
pating provider prescribing a drug under a re-21
search protocol; 22
‘‘(F) a prescription issued by a partici-23
pating provider for a drug for which the Food 24
and Drug Administration requires a prescrip-25
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tion to contain elements that are not able to be 1
included in electronic prescribing, such as a 2
drug with risk evaluation and mitigation strate-3
gies that include elements to assure safe use; 4
‘‘(G) a prescription issued for an individual 5
who receives hospice care or for a resident of a 6
nursing facility (as defined in section 1919(a) 7
of the Social Security Act); 8
‘‘(H) a prescription issued under cir-9
cumstances in which electronic prescribing is 10
not available due to temporary technological or 11
electrical failure, as specified jointly by the Sec-12
retary, the Secretary of Health and Human 13
Services, and the Secretary of the Treasury 14
through rulemaking; and 15
‘‘(I) a prescription issued by a partici-16
pating provider allowing for the dispensing of a 17
non-patient specific prescription pursuant to a 18
standing order, approved protocol for drug ther-19
apy, collaborative drug management, or com-20
prehensive medication management, in response 21
to a public health emergency or other cir-22
cumstances under which the participating pro-23
vider may issue a non-patient specific prescrip-24
tion. 25
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‘‘(3) RULES OF CONSTRUCTION .— 1
‘‘(A) V
ERIFICATION.—Nothing in this sub-2
section shall be construed as requiring a dis-3
penser to verify that a participating provider, 4
with respect to a prescription for a schedule II, 5
III, IV, or V controlled substance that is a pre-6
scription drug covered by a group health plan 7
or group or individual health insurance cov-8
erage offered by a health insurance issuer, has 9
a waiver (or is otherwise exempt) under para-10
graph (2) from the requirement under para-11
graph (1). 12
‘‘(B) A
UTHORITY TO DISPENSE .—Nothing 13
in this subsection shall be construed as affect-14
ing the authority of a group health plan or 15
group health insurance coverage offered by a 16
health insurance issuer to cover, or the author-17
ity of a dispenser to continue to dispense, a pre-18
scription drug if the prescription for such drug 19
is an otherwise valid written, oral, or fax pre-20
scription that is consistent with applicable law. 21
‘‘(C) P
ATIENT CHOICE.—Nothing in this 22
subsection shall be construed as affecting the 23
ability of an individual who is a participant or 24
beneficiary of a group health plan or group or 25
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individual health insurance coverage offered by 1
a health insurance issuer and who is prescribed 2
a schedule II, III, IV, or V controlled substance 3
that is a prescription drug covered by the plan 4
or coverage to designate a particular dispenser 5
to dispense a prescribed controlled substance to 6
the extent consistent with the requirements 7
under this subsection. 8
‘‘(4) R
EGULATIONS ON POLICY REQUIRE -9
MENTS.—The Secretary, the Secretary of Health 10
and Human Services, and the Secretary of the 11
Treasury shall promulgate regulations specifying re-12
quirements for the policies established by group 13
health plans and health insurance issuers under 14
paragraph (1). Such regulations shall include re-15
quirements for— 16
‘‘(A) a uniform process by which plans and 17
issuers are required to set the e-prescribing re-18
quirements; 19
‘‘(B) a process by which plans and issuers 20
are required to grant waivers and exceptions to 21
participating providers pursuant to paragraph 22
(2); and 23
‘‘(C) a mechanism for plans and issuers to 24
recognize waivers issued to participating pro-25
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viders under part D of title XVIII of the Social 1
Security Act, pursuant to paragraph (2)(C). 2
‘‘(5) P
ROHIBITIONS.—The policies established 3
pursuant to paragraph (1) by a group health plan or 4
health insurance issuer offering group health insur-5
ance coverage may not— 6
‘‘(A) require dispensers of a schedule II, 7
III, IV, or V controlled substance to confirm 8
that the prescription for the controlled sub-9
stance was electronically issued by a partici-10
pating provider in accordance with such poli-11
cies, as described in paragraph (1); 12
‘‘(B) require dispensers of such controlled 13
substances to submit information or data be-14
yond what is otherwise required to process a 15
prescription drug claim in order to confirm a 16
participating provider’s compliance with such 17
policies; 18
‘‘(C) reject, deny, or recoup reimbursement 19
for a prescription drug claim based on the for-20
mat in which the prescription was issued; or 21
‘‘(D) require a participating provider to 22
use a specific vendor for electronic prescribing 23
or a specific electronic prescribing product or 24
system. 25
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‘‘(6) ATTESTATION OF COMPLIANCE .—Begin-1
ning on January 1, 2026, each group health plan 2
and health insurance issuer offering group health in-3
surance coverage shall annually submit to the Sec-4
retary, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, 5
and the Secretary of the Treasury an attestation of 6
compliance with the requirements of this subsection. 7
‘‘(7) C
ONSULTATION REQUIREMENT FOR RULE -8
MAKING.—In promulgating regulations to carry out 9
this subsection, the Secretary, the Secretary of 10
Health and Human Services, and the Secretary of 11
the Treasury shall jointly consult with dispensers of 12
controlled substances, State insurance regulators, 13
health insurance issuers offering group or individual 14
health insurance coverage, and health care practi-15
tioners.’’. 16
(c) I
NTERNALREVENUECODE OF1986 AMEND-17
MENT.—Section 9822 of the Internal Revenue Code of 18
1986 is amended by adding at the end the following new 19
subsection: 20
‘‘(d) R
EQUIREMENTS FOR ELECTRONIC-PRE-21
SCRIBING FORCONTROLLEDSUBSTANCES.— 22
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Except as provided pursu-23
ant to paragraph (2), for plan years beginning on or 24
after January 1, 2026, a group health plan, with re-25
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spect to a participating provider, as defined in sec-1
tion 9816(a)(3), shall have in place policies, subject 2
to paragraphs (4) and (5), that require any prescrip-3
tion for a schedule II, III, IV, or V controlled sub-4
stance (as defined by section 202 of the Controlled 5
Substances Act) covered by the plan that is trans-6
mitted by such a participating provider for such a 7
participant or beneficiary be electronically trans-8
mitted consistent with standards established under 9
paragraph (3) of section 1860D–4(e) of the Social 10
Security Act, under an electronic prescription drug 11
program that meets requirements that are substan-12
tially similar (as jointly determined by the Secretary, 13
the Secretary of Health and Human Services, and 14
the Secretary of Labor) to the requirements of para-15
graph (2) of such section 1860D–4(e). 16
‘‘(2) E
XCEPTION FOR CERTAIN CIR -17
CUMSTANCES.—The Secretary, the Secretary of 18
Health and Human Services, and the Secretary of 19
Labor shall jointly, through rulemaking, specify cir-20
cumstances and processes by which the requirement 21
under paragraph (1) may be waived, with respect to 22
a schedule II, III, IV, or V controlled substance that 23
is a prescription drug covered by a group health, in-24
cluding in the case of— 25
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‘‘(A) a prescription issued when the par-1
ticipating provider and dispensing pharmacy are 2
the same entity; 3
‘‘(B) a prescription issued that cannot be 4
transmitted electronically under the most re-5
cently implemented version of the National 6
Council for Prescription Drug Programs 7
SCRIPT Standard; 8
‘‘(C) a prescription issued by a partici-9
pating provider who received a waiver (which 10
may include a waiver obtained pursuant to sec-11
tion 1860D–4(e)(7)(B)(iii) of the Social Secu-12
rity Act) or a renewal thereof for a period of 13
time as determined by the Secretary, the Sec-14
retary of Health and Human Services, and the 15
Secretary of Labor, not to exceed one year, 16
from the requirement to use electronic pre-17
scribing due to demonstrated economic hard-18
ship, technological limitations that are not rea-19
sonably within the control of the participating 20
provider, or other exceptional circumstance 21
demonstrated by the participating provider; 22
‘‘(D) a prescription issued by a partici-23
pating provider under circumstances in which, 24
notwithstanding the participating provider’s 25
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ability to submit a prescription electronically as 1
required by this subsection, such participating 2
provider reasonably determines that it would be 3
impractical for the individual involved to obtain 4
substances prescribed by electronic prescription 5
in a timely manner, and such delay would ad-6
versely impact the individual’s medical condition 7
involved; 8
‘‘(E) a prescription issued by a partici-9
pating provider prescribing a drug under a re-10
search protocol; 11
‘‘(F) a prescription issued by a partici-12
pating provider for a drug for which the Food 13
and Drug Administration requires a prescrip-14
tion to contain elements that are not able to be 15
included in electronic prescribing, such as a 16
drug with risk evaluation and mitigation strate-17
gies that include elements to assure safe use; 18
‘‘(G) a prescription issued for an individual 19
who receives hospice care or for a resident of a 20
nursing facility (as defined in section 1919(a) 21
of the Social Security Act); 22
‘‘(H) a prescription issued under cir-23
cumstances in which electronic prescribing is 24
not available due to temporary technological or 25
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electrical failure, as specified jointly by the Sec-1
retary, the Secretary of Health and Human 2
Services, and the Secretary of Labor through 3
rulemaking; and 4
‘‘(I) a prescription issued by a partici-5
pating provider allowing for the dispensing of a 6
non-patient specific prescription pursuant to a 7
standing order, approved protocol for drug ther-8
apy, collaborative drug management, or com-9
prehensive medication management, in response 10
to a public health emergency or other cir-11
cumstances under which the participating pro-12
vider may issue a non-patient specific prescrip-13
tion. 14
‘‘(3) R
ULES OF CONSTRUCTION .— 15
‘‘(A) V
ERIFICATION.—Nothing in this sub-16
section shall be construed as requiring a dis-17
penser to verify that a participating provider, 18
with respect to a prescription for a schedule II, 19
III, IV, or V controlled substance that is a pre-20
scription drug covered by a group health plan, 21
has a waiver (or is otherwise exempt) under 22
paragraph (2) from the requirement under 23
paragraph (1). 24
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‘‘(B) AUTHORITY TO DISPENSE .—Nothing 1
in this subsection shall be construed as affect-2
ing the ability of a group health plan to cover, 3
or the ability of a dispenser to continue to dis-4
pense, a prescription drug if the prescription 5
for such drug is an otherwise valid written, 6
oral, or fax prescription that is consistence with 7
applicable laws and regulations. 8
‘‘(C) P
ATIENT CHOICE.—Nothing in this 9
subsection shall be construed as affecting the 10
ability of an individual who is a participant or 11
beneficiary of a group health plan and who is 12
prescribed a schedule II, III, IV, or V con-13
trolled substance that is a prescription drug 14
covered by the plan to designate a particular 15
dispenser to dispense a prescribed controlled 16
substance to the extent consistent with the re-17
quirements under this subsection. 18
‘‘(4) R
EGULATIONS ON POLICY REQUIRE -19
MENTS.—The Secretary, the Secretary of Health 20
and Human Services, and the Secretary of Labor 21
shall promulgate regulations specifying requirements 22
for the policies established by group health plans 23
under paragraph (1). Such regulations shall include 24
requirements for— 25
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‘‘(A) a uniform process by which plans are 1
required to set the e-prescribing requirements; 2
‘‘(B) a process by which plans are required 3
to grant waivers and exceptions to participating 4
providers pursuant to paragraph (2); and 5
‘‘(C) a mechanism for plans to recognize 6
waivers issued to participating providers under 7
part D of title XVIII of the Public Health Serv-8
ice Act, pursuant to paragraph (2)(C). 9
‘‘(5) P
ROHIBITIONS.—The policies established 10
pursuant to paragraph (1) by a group health plan 11
may not— 12
‘‘(A) require dispensers of a schedule II, 13
III, IV, or V controlled substance to confirm 14
that the prescription for the controlled sub-15
stance was electronically issued by a partici-16
pating provider in accordance with such poli-17
cies, as described in paragraph (1); 18
‘‘(B) require dispensers of such controlled 19
substances to submit information or data be-20
yond what is otherwise required to process a 21
prescription drug claim in order to confirm a 22
participating provider’s compliance with such 23
policies; 24
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‘‘(C) reject, deny, or recoup reimbursement 1
for a prescription drug claim based on the for-2
mat in which the prescription was issued; or 3
‘‘(D) require a participating provider to 4
use a specific vendor for electronic prescribing 5
or a specific electronic prescribing product or 6
system. 7
‘‘(6) A
TTESTATION OF COMPLIANCE .—Begin-8
ning on January 1, 2026, each group health plan 9
shall annually submit to the Secretary, the Secretary 10
of Health and Human Services, and the Secretary of 11
Labor an attestation of compliance with the require-12
ments of this subsection. 13
‘‘(7) C
ONSULTATION REQUIREMENT FOR RULE -14
MAKING.—In promulgating regulations to carry out 15
this subsection, the Secretary, the Secretary of 16
Health and Human Services, and the Secretary of 17
Labor shall jointly consult with dispensers of con-18
trolled substances, State insurance regulators, health 19
insurance issuers offering group or individual health 20
insurance coverage, and health care practitioners.’’. 21
(d) U
PDATE OFBIOMETRICCOMPONENT OFMULTI-22
FACTORAUTHENTICATION.—Not later than 1 year after 23
the date of enactment of this Act, the Attorney General 24
shall finalize a regulation updating the requirements for 25
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the biometric component of multifactor authentication 1
with respect to electronic prescriptions of controlled sub-2
stances, as required under section 2003(c) of the SUP-3
PORT for Patients and Community Act (Public Law 115– 4
271). 5
Æ
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