Subject of Possible Rule Making: WAC 246-922-700 Acute perioperative pain, 246-922-780 Coprescribing of opioids for patients receiving medication assistant treatment and 246-922-790 Prescription monitoring program—Required registration, queries, and documentation, the podiatric medical board (board) is considering amendments regarding requirements for checking the prescription monitoring program (PMP) when prescribing opioids, as well as correcting other typographical errors.

Reasons Why Rules on this Subject may be Needed and What They Might Accomplish: In 2017, the legislature passed ESHB 1427 (chapter 297, Laws of 2017) directing the board, along with four other health profession boards and commissions, to adopt rules establishing requirements for prescribing opioid drugs for seven health professions.

The board participated in a workgroup task force with those boards and commissions to develop model rules that each board and commission would then customize to align with the specific practice areas to which they would be applied. With an effective date of November 1, 2018, the board held one of the first rule adoption hearings and adopted rule language that closely mirrored the task force model rules. The other boards and commissions subsequently modified the model rule language with more restrictive PMP query requirements.

The board is considering amendments to more closely align their PMP query requirement with the other board[s] and commissions. In addition, after the effective date, it was discovered there were typographical errors in three section[s] of the adopted rules. The board will consider correcting these errors, as well as consider changes to the PMP query requirement.

Other Federal and State Agencies that Regulate this Subject and the Process Coordinating the Rule with These Agencies: None.

Interested parties can participate in the decision to adopt the new rule and formulation of the proposed rule before publication by contacting Susan Gragg, P.O. Box 47852, Olympia, WA 98504-7852, phone 360-236-4941, fax 360-236-2901, TTY 360-833-6388 or 711, email podiatric@doh.wa.gov, web site www.doh.wa.gov, https://public.govdelivery.com/accounts/WADOH/subscriber/new.

Additional comments: Individuals may join the rule-making interested parties list by subscribing at https://public.govdelivery.com/accounts/WADOH/subscriber/new.