Baker opposes sunset on patient opioid limit
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Gov. Charlie Baker wants continued limits on opioid supply for first-time patients.
Gov. Charlie Baker on Tuesday rejected the suggestion made by a prominent doctors group that limits on the supply of opioids to first-time patients should expire after a trial period.
As the House prepares to consider that policy and others when it debates a drug abuse prevention bill Wednesday, Baker said during an interview on WGBH radio, "I am opposed to the sunset provision, bigtime."
Massachusetts Medical Society President Dr. Dennis Dimitri told the News Service on Monday that his organization was willing to go along with the House's proposal to limit prescriptions for first-time patients to a seven-day supply of opioids. The group had opposed a three-day limit floated by Baker.
Dimitri said there is no evidence or research to suggest limiting the sizes of prescriptions has a positive impact on rates of substance abuse, and urged House members to give "some sort of consideration for a sunset provision" if the limit proves ineffective or detrimental to a doctor's ability to treat a patient.
"In an ideal world we really think that physicians should be allowed to apply their clinical judgment, their expertise, their learning. But we realize there's also a very specific crisis situation that we're in right now so we are willing to be open-minded and somewhat compromising on this and put a number out there to make physicians stop and think," he said.
Baker, noting that the Senate won't return to formal sessions until Jan. 21, said he's hopeful that a bill would reach his desk in "late January, early February," but House Speaker Robert DeLeo said Monday it "may take some time" for the House and Senate to iron out differences once competing bills move into conference committee.
Baker, who saw some of his proposals to address the opioid crisis softened or omitted completely from the House bill, said he's willing to compromise.
"I just want to do some things and see what works," Baker said.
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