New Proposed Rules Regarding Opioids

The New Jersey State Board of Dentistry, New Jersey Board of Nursing and New Jersey State Board of Optometrists each released a proposed rule aimed at addressing New Jersey’s ongoing opioid epidemic and further increasing the public availability of the overdose‑reversal drug, naloxone. Each proposed rule would require co‑prescribing of an opioid antidote like naloxone if, as part of the treatment of chronic pain, the patient has one or more prescriptions totaling 90 morphine milligram equivalents or more per day or is concurrently obtaining an opioid and a benzodiazepine. The proposed rules also would modify the timing of the requirement to enter into a pain management agreement prior to the commencement of an ongoing course of treatment for chronic pain. Currently, a pain management agreement is not required until issuance of the third prescription for a controlled dangerous substance or opioid drug.

Each proposed rule is available here: New Jersey State Board of Dentistry, New Jersey Board of Nursing, and New Jersey State Board of Optometrists. Comments are due by March 20, 2021.

Additionally, the New Jersey Board of Medical Examiners has already adopted similar rules regarding limitations on prescribing, administering, or dispensing controlled dangerous substances and managing acute and chronic pain, applicable to physicians, podiatrists, physician assistants and certified nurse midwives. The BME’s rules were effective January 19.