Christine Jordan Sexton
Regulations for pain management clinics are set to expire in January, but the Florida Senate passed a bill on Wednesday that would keep the requirements intact indefinitely.
Sponsored by Sen. Lizbeth Benacquisto, SB 450, passed unanimously and without any debate or controversy. A companion bill, HB 4017, has cleared all the committees of reference and is on the House Calendar, awaiting action.
Florida had earned the reputation of being a pill mill state, a state known for prescription drug trafficking. As a result, between 2009 and 2012 the Legislature passed a series of bills aimed at cracking down on pill mills, including among other things, requiring clinic registration and regulation.
According to the attorney general’s website, there has been a decrease in the number of pain management clinics, from 900-plus in 2010 to 367 as of January 2014. The number of prescription drug-related deaths also has dipped, from 2,710 in 2010 to 2,090 in 2012.
Former Sen. Mike Fasano championed the pill mill bills over the years and he recalled working closely with Attorney General Pam Bondi in 2011 to revamp the laws related to the establishment, management and operation of pain management clinics. The new laws included regulating physicians who practice medicine at pain management clinics.
The House, however, took a different approach to the pill mill problem at the time and initially proposed a bill that would have prohibited dispensing controlled substances altogether. Without the dispensing, the House argued, pain clinic registration wasn’t necessary.
Fasano recalled a compromise reached during the waning hours of the 2011 session. However, he didn’t realize the compromise included the 2016 expiration for pain clinic registration. “Shame on me for not recognizing it,” Fasano said when told of the expiration, adding, “Those little (House) devils.”
Fasano on Wednesday said he was pleased the Senate was moving forward with maintaining the regulation requirements.
