Subject of Possible Rule Making: WAC 246-817-905 Exclusions. The dental quality assurance commission (commission) is considering adding residential habilitation centers (RHCs) to the list of opioid-prescribing exclusions.

Reasons Why Rules on this Subject may be Needed and What They Might Accomplish: On March 1, 2022, the commission received a rule-making petition requesting adding RHCs to the list of exclusions for the opioid prescribing rules. The Washington medical commission recently completed rule amendments to exempt patients in RHCs to allow physicians and physician assistants in these facilities to continue the patient's pain medications without having to perform a history and physical or wait for the history and physical to be completed on the patient. The commission is considering adding similar rule language to the exclusions section of the opioid prescribing provisions for dentists to encourage cross-profession cohesion and improve public safety.

Interested parties can participate in the decision to adopt the new rule and formulation of the proposed rule before publication by contacting Amber Freeberg, P.O. Box 47852, Olympia, WA 98504-7852, phone 360-236-4893, fax 360-236-2901, TTY 711, email amber.freeberg@doh.wa.gov, website doh.wa.gov/dental, dental@doh.wa.gov.

Additional comments: Interested parties may sign up for the program's interested parties list (GovDelivery) at https://public.govdelivery.com/accounts/WADOH/subscriber/new. All rule-making notices will be emailed via GovDelivery. Rule development will take place in open public meetings prior to a formal rule proposal and comment period.