The Texas Orthopaedic Association (TOA) supported legislative efforts in the 2019 Texas Legislature to require continuing medical education (CME) for prescribing opioids. TOA was pleased that lawmakers worked with TOA on the issue.

Instead of passing an omnibus bill related to opioids, the 2019 Texas Legislature took a “shotgun approach” to opioids by passing a number of different bills. As a result, three bills mandating CME for opioids were signed into law. While each bill appears to address the same concept, each bill contains different verbiage. As a result, regulators could interpret the different verbiage found in each bill to result in three different CME requirements. Three different CME mandates could result in redundancy that would take away from other valuable continuing education activities.

TOA submitted a letter to the Texas Medical Board (TMB) on August 26 that asks the TMB to seek legislative intent from lawmakers so that CME guidance can be created by the TMB this fall. Physicians are in the process of planning their 2020 continuing education activities, and it is critical that they are provided the opioid guidance as soon as possible.

Click here to read TOA’s response to the TMB.