Congressman Bentz and Golden Reintroduction of Legislation to Protect Patient Safety

WASHINGTON – Today, Congressman Cliff Bentz (R-OR) and Congressman Jared Golden (D-ME) reintroduced the Patients’ Right to Know Their Medication Act in the House of Representatives. This legislation prioritizes patient safety and will guarantee all Americans receive effective and printed medication information with their prescriptions.
 
“In rural Oregon, access to reliable internet or to a pharmacist is not always
guaranteed. But what should be guaranteed are clear, printed instructions on how to take your medication safely,” Congressman Cliff Bentz (R-OR) said. “If enacted, this bill will provide patients with accurate, FDA-approved information. This would ensure fewer mistakes, fewer expensive hospital trips, and less strain on families and our small, local pharmacies. Additionally, this is at no cost to the government or to the rural pharmacies. It is a practical improvement that will help rural communities.”
 
“Mainers shouldn’t have to go out of their way to get the information they need about how their medicine works,” Congressman Jared Golden (ME-02) said. “Requiring hard copies of instructions to be included with medicine is a no brainer to make prescription drugs safer, make treatment easier for families and their pharmacists, and prevent large pharmaceutical corporations from cutting corners at the expense of quality health care.”
 
“The National Rural Health Association (NRHA) thanks Representatives Bentz and Golden on their work to reintroduce the Patients’ Right to Know Their Medication Act,” said Alan Morgan, CEO of The National Rural Health Association. “NRHA is proud to support this legislation that will ensure rural residents have access to printed information about their medications. Not only will this bill support safe usage of prescription medications, but it also recognizes the importance of printed materials in rural areas where internet access is not always guaranteed or available.”
 

Additional Information:
 
The bill requires drug manufacturers to provide printed Patient Medication
Information (PMI), approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), for every American taking prescription medications. PMI refers to the life-saving information dispensed at the pharmacy detailing a drug’s purpose, instructions for use, and potential side effects. Americans reference PMI to take their medications correctly and safely. The bill requires:

• A one-page, printed, standardized format with FDA-approved content
  dispenses with all prescription drugs in the outpatient setting.
• Final regulations by the FDA regarding the inclusion of printed paper PMI on all prescription drugs and establishes a clear and standard format of vital information (warnings, side effects, etc.)
• Timely, consistent, and accurate reviews of information as new drugs and new information become available. 

The FDA previously proposed two harmful rules that jeopardize patient care. One would eliminate printed Prescribing Information (PI), which is vital for pharmacists to safely serve patients, while the other would restrict access to printed PMI. By shifting PI and PMI to digital formats, the rules would endanger pharmacy care and disproportionately harm low-income, older, and rural patients who often lack access to reliable internet or smartphones needed to use digital resources. The Patients’ Right to Know Their Medication Act would improve well-intentioned but erroneous policies in the FDA’s proposed PMI rule to ensure that all Americans have access to clear, printed PMI at the pharmacy.
 
Read the full text, here.