The Committee on Health and Human Resources moved to amend the bill on page 17, by inserting a new subsection, “cc” to read as follows:

“(cc) “Telehealth" means the mode of delivering health care services and public health via information and communication technologies to facilitate the diagnosis, consultation, treatment, education, care management, and self-management of a patient's health care while the patient is at the originating site and the health care provider is at a distant site.

And re-lettering the remaining the subsections.

On page 28, line 118, after the word, “plans” by inserting the words, “or treatment strategies”;

And,

On page 29, line 155 after the semicolon by removing, “and;”;

And,

On page 30, line 164 by removing the period inserting a semicolon and the following: “and, (7) The medication-assisted treatment program shall have a drug testing program to ensure a patient is in compliance with the treatment strategy."

And,

On page 30, line 170, by inserting the following:

“(p) If a physician treats a patient with more than sixteen milligrams per day of buprenorphine then clear medical notes shall be placed in the patient’s medical file indicating the clinical reason or reasons for the higher level of dosage.

(q) If a physician is not the patient’s obstetrical or gynecological provider, the physician shall consult with the patient’s obstetrical or gynecological provider to the extent possible to determine whether the prescription is appropriate for the patient.

(r) A practitioner providing medication-assisted treatment may perform certain aspects telehealth if permitted under his or her scope of practice.

(s) The physician shall follow the recommended manufacturer’s tapering schedule for the medication assisted treatment medication. If the schedule is not followed, the physician shall document in the patient’s medical record and the clinical reason why the schedule was not followed. The secretary may investigate a medication-assisted treatment program if a high percentage of its patients are not following the recommended tapering schedule.”;

And,

On page 34, line 10 by striking the word, “shall” and inserting the word, “may”;

And,

On page 41, line 38, after the period by inserting the following:

(e) The Board of Pharmacy shall notify a physician prescribing buprenorphine or buprenorphine/naloxone within sixty days of the availability of the an abuse deterrent form of buprenorphine or buprenorphine/naloxone is approved by the Food and Drug Administration as provided in FDA Guidance to Industry. Upon receipt of the notice, a physician may switch their patients using buprenorphine or buprenorphine/naloxone to the abuse deterrent form of the drug.

And,

On page 50, line 12, after the period by inserting the following: “There is created within the Office of the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Resources the Grant Writer Pilot Project. The Secretary shall hire a person as a grant writer, who shall be placed within the Office of the Secretary. This person shall identify, application and monitoring policies and procedures to increase grant applications and improve management and oversight of grants. The grant writer shall focus his or her abilities on obtaining grants concerning the prevention and treatment of substance abuse. The grant writer is not eligible for civil service. The department shall report to the Legislative Oversight Commission on Health and Human Resources Accountability on the implementation of the new grant policy; the number of grants obtained; and an analysis examining the costs associated with obtaining a grant verses the federal money received.”