South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster recently signed HB3728 into law. This was a bipartisan bill that was amended a few times during the legislative process. This Act mandates South Carolina healthcare providers to electronically prescribe all controlled substance medications with an effective date of January 1st, 2021.
Other subsections of the Act include:
- The Act requires healthcare facilities and first responders who have diagnosed an opioid overdose to submit data to the state PMP (Prescription Monitoring Program) for each instance that an opioid antidote was administered to a patient. This data will then be analyzed by the Bureau of Drug Control.
- The State PMP must be consulted when prescribing a Schedule II controlled substance and must be documented in the patient’s chart that the PMP was consulted.
The Act makes dispensers immune from civil and criminal liability from the State Board of Pharmacy over dispensing prescriptions that potentially violate the laws established in the Act. If a prescription is sent to the pharmacy in a non-electronic format, this section puts the responsibility on the prescriber to ensure that a valid exceptional circumstance (detailed in the bill) was utilized.
— March 3, 2020