What's happening
This bill requires healthcare providers to discuss opioid risks with patients before prescribing and to counsel on overdose and naloxone availability.
Why it matters
Increases patient awareness of opioid dangers. By mandating detailed conversations at both the first and third prescription, the bill aims to ensure patients (and parents of minors) understand the risks of addiction, overdose, and dangerous drug interactions, potentially helping to prevent misuse before it starts.
Promotes transparency and informed decision-making. Patients must be told not only why an opioid is being prescribed but also about alternative treatments, empowering them to make more informed choices about pain management.
Encourages overdose prevention through naloxone education. Requiring prescribers to counsel patients on overdose risks and inform them of opioid antagonists like naloxone (especially when dispensing more than a week’s supply) may increase access to life-saving interventions and encourage safer use.
Standardizes risk communication. By directing the Department of Health to develop guidelines for these discussions, the law ensures a consistent, evidence-based approach across providers, potentially reducing disparities in patient education.
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Who cares
Pain-treatment practitioners
They would have to discuss addiction, overdose, dangerous drug combinations, prescription necessity and treatment alternatives before the initial and third prescriptions covered by the bill.
Patients receiving opioid analgesics
They would receive overdose counseling and information about opioid antagonists, including naloxone, with their first prescription of a calendar year exceeding one week's supply.
Parents and guardians of minors
They would participate in required risk discussions when the patient is under eighteen and is not an emancipated minor.
New York State Department of Health
It would have to develop and make available guidelines for practitioners' required patient discussions.
Headline styles
Doctors Must Warn on Opioids
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
History
- Referred to health
- Returned to senate
- Died in assembly
- Referred to health
- Delivered to assembly
- Passed senateVote 50–12
- Advanced to third reading
- 2nd report cal.
- 1st report cal.538
- Print number 4277a
- Amend (t) and recommit to health
- Referred to health
Companion bill
The same bill in the other chamber. A bill becomes law when one version passes both houses and the governor signs it, so either number can carry it.
Warn Patients About Opioids
In Assembly Committee · Health · Sponsor Linda Rosenthal
Full text
2 pagesUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
4277--A
2019-2020 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
March 6, 2019
Introduced by Sen. HARCKHAM -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Health -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee
AN ACT to amend the public health law, in relation to requiring health practitioners to discuss with patients the risks associated with certain pain medications before prescribing such medications; and in relation to opioid analgesic prescriptions
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. The public health law is amended by adding a new section 3309-b to read as follows:
§ 3309-b. Practitioner and patient discussions; opioid prescriptions. 1. Prior to issuing the initial prescription of a Schedule II controlled substance for the treatment of pain or any other opioid drug which is a prescription drug for acute or chronic pain and again prior to issuing the third prescription of the course of treatment, a practitioner shall discuss with the patient, or the patient's parent or guardian if the patient is under eighteen years of age and is not an emancipated minor, the risks associated with the drugs being prescribed, including but not limited to:
(a) the risks of addiction and overdose associated with opioid drugs and the dangers of taking opioid drugs with alcohol, benzodiazepines and other central nervous system depressants;
(b) the reasons why the prescription is necessary;
(c) alternative treatments that may be available; and
(d) the risks associated with the use of the drugs being prescribed, specifically that opioids are highly addictive, even when taken as prescribed, that there is a risk of developing a physical or psychological dependence on the controlled substance, and that the risks of taking more opioids than prescribed, or mixing sedatives, benzodiaze-
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD10262-02-9
S. 4277--A 2
pines or alcohol with opioids, can result in fatal respiratory depression.
2. The department shall develop and make available to practitioners guidelines for the discussion required by this section.
§ 2. The public health law is amended by adding a new section 3309-c to read as follows:
§ 3309-c. Opioid analgesic prescription. 1. For the first opioid analgesic prescription of a calendar year that is greater than a one week's supply, the prescribing physician shall counsel the patient on the risks of overdose, and inform the patient of the availability of an opioid antagonist, including, but not limited to, naloxone.
2. For the purposes of this section, the following terms shall have the following meanings:
(a) "Opioid analgesics" means the medicines buprenorphine, butorphanol, codeine, hydrocodone, hydromorphone, levorphanol, meperidine, methadone, morphine, nalbuphine, oxycodone, oxymorphone, pentazocine, propoxyphene as well as their brand names, isomers and combinations.
(b) "Opioid antagonist" means an FDA-approved drug that, when administered, negates or neutralizes in whole or in part the pharmacological effects of an opioid in the body. The opioid antagonist is limited to naloxone or other medications approved by the department for this purpose.
§ 3. This act shall take effect on the one hundred twentieth day after it shall have become a law. Effective immediately, the addition, amendment and/or repeal of any rule or regulation necessary for the implementation of this act on its effective date are authorized to be made and completed on or before such effective date.
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to amend the public health law, in relation to requiring health practitioners to discuss with patients the risks asso- ciated with certain pain medications before prescribing such medica- tions; and in relation to opioid analgesic prescriptions
Purpose
Amends the public health law to better protect the health and safety of patients undergoing opioid or related schedule II controlled substance prescription dosage for treatment as well as inform patients of the side-effects that may result from such use.
Summary of provisions
Section 1 amends the public health law by adding a new section3309-b.
Section 2 amends the public health law by adding a new section3309-c.
Section 3 provides the effective date.
Justification
When patients receive opioid and other schedule II controlled substance prescriptions for pain relief, they are often uninformed of the risks and side-effects associated with the use of aforesaid medications such as; physical and psychological dependencies and abuse.
Moreover, patients are frequently neglected to be provided with informa- tion of alternative prescriptions available to them, or why the prescription is necessary to their well-being.
This legislation will help in preventing patients from being left in the dark regarding the risk management, side effects, alternative methods, and imperatives of their prescribed medication.
Legislative history
This is a new bill.
Fiscal implications
None to the State.
Effective date
On the sixteenth day after it shall become law.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.