U.S. Senators Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., sent a letter to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra on Friday urging him to fully implement Jessie’s Law.
This bipartisan legislation helps physicians and other medical professionals have knowledge of a patient’s history with substance use disorder when determining appropriate medical care.
Jessie’s Law was included in the Substance Use Disorder Prevention That Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment (SUPPORT) for Patients and Communities Act, which was signed into law in 2018.
Since then, HHS has partly responded to this directive; however, it has not released guidance for including a patient’s history of substance use disorder in their electronic health record.
In February of 2024, HHS finalized the Confidentiality of Substance Use Disorder Patient Records rule, which aligns the law governing privacy records for patients with substance use disorder with other health privacy laws.
Jessie’s Law is named after Jessica Grubbs, a West Virginian who died from substance use disorder after a medical provider prescribed her opioid pills following a surgery.
This legislation requires HHS to develop and disseminate standards for hospitals and medical professionals to effectively display a patient’s past history of opioid use disorder when the patient provides that information.