Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of my colleague from New Hampshire (Ms. Kuster) and her bill to improve information sharing between providers to ensure that they are able to follow safe prescribing practices. The VA Prescription Data Accountability Act helps to close a loophole in statute that limits the data that the VA can share with Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs, or PDMPs. These databases track the prescribing and dispensing of controlled substances to help find suspected fraud and intervene with patients who are at high risk for prescription drug abuse. These databases are only as useful as the information they collect. Since 2011, the VA has been able to share prescription data with PDMPs, but only for the veteran patients it sees. Statutory and technical challenges have prevented the Department from sharing data from nonveteran patients with PDMPs. Approximately 10 percent of the VA's patients are nonveterans. We are talking about 700,000 patients each year. Now, Ms. Kuster's bill expands the authority of the VA to share all patient data with PDMPs. This will allow us to better monitor the use of prescription drugs and help combat a growing opioid epidemic. On average, 650,000 opioid prescriptions are dispensed daily in the United States, and 78 people die from opioid-related overdoses. Properly tracking prescription drugs is one of the first steps to turn the tide on this epidemic. I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.”