Opioid impact fee

AN ACT Relating to sustaining and expanding behavioral health 1
services by levying an opioid impact fee on opioid manufacturers; 2
amending RCW 70.225.040; adding a new chapter to Title 69 RCW; and 3
providing an effective date. 4
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:5
NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. The definitions in this section apply 6
throughout this chapter unless the context clearly requires 7
otherwise.8
(1) "Department" means the department of health.9
(2) "Impact fee" means a payment of money imposed upon a 10
manufacturer of prescription opioids under this chapter.11
(3) "Manufacturer of prescription opioids" or "opioid 12
manufacturer" means a person who is engaged in manufacturing, 13
preparing, propagating, compounding, processing, packaging, 14
repackaging, or labeling of a prescription opioid drug, but does not 15
include a person who is engaged in the preparation and dispensing of 16
a drug pursuant to a prescription. 17
(4) "Morphine milligram equivalent" means the conversion factor 18
used to calculate the strength of an opioid using morphine dosage as 19
the comparative unit of measure. 20
H-2152.1
HOUSE BILL 2072
State of Washington 69th Legislature 2025 Regular Session
By Representatives Davis, Pollet, and Scott
Read first time 04/08/25. Referred to Committee on Appropriations.
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(5) "Prescription monitoring program" means the program 1
established under chapter 70.225 RCW. 2
(6) "Prescription opioid" means a drug that is a controlled 3
substance under this chapter and is either an opiate, derived from 4
the opium poppy, or an opiate-like synthetic drug. "Prescription 5
opioid" does not include buprenorphine, morphine, or methadone.6
NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. (1) The prescription opioid impact account 7
is created in the state treasury. All fees collected by the 8
department from manufacturers of opioid prescription products under 9
section 3 of this act and any attorneys' fees recovered by the 10
attorney general under section 4 of this act must be deposited into 11
the account.12
(2) Moneys in the account may be spent only after appropriation. 13
Expenditures from the account must be used to fund programs that 14
provide outreach, treatment, or recovery support services for persons 15
living with behavioral health challenges. Fifty percent of the funds 16
must be expended on behavioral health programs that serve children, 17
youth, and young adults. Funds must also be used to reimburse the 18
state general fund with interest for any amounts appropriated to the 19
department during the 2025-2027 biennium for costs to modify the 20
prescription monitoring program to implement the requirements of 21
section 3 of this act. 22
(3) No more than 12 percent of the moneys annually deposited into 23
the account may be used for the administration of this chapter. Costs 24
incurred by the attorney general to bring an action to enforce this 25
chapter shall be covered by the account and are not subject to or 26
included in the 12 percent cap on administrative expenses.27
NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. (1) If more than 100,000 morphine 28
milligram equivalents of an opioid manufacturer's prescription opioid 29
products are dispensed in this state during a quarter year, the 30
department must provide a quarterly statement to the manufacturer 31
that states the amount of opioids from the manufacturer that were 32
dispensed in the previous quarter as reported in the prescription 33
monitoring program. The opioid manufacturer must pay to the 34
department a prescription opioid impact fee of one cent per morphine 35
milligram equivalent for a prescription opioid dispensed and reported 36
in the prescription monitoring program.37
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(2) If a manufacturer of prescription opioids fails to pay the 1
impact fee within 45 days of the date of a statement as required 2
under this section, the department shall assess a penalty of $100 per 3
day or 10 percent of the impact fee due, whichever is greater.4
NEW SECTION. Sec. 4. The attorney general may bring an action 5
on behalf of the state to enforce this chapter. The attorney general 6
may recover interest and reasonable attorneys' fees and expenses as a 7
result of a successful action to enforce this chapter. Any attorneys' 8
fees recovered in an action to enforce this chapter must be remitted 9
to the prescription opioid impact account.10
NEW SECTION. Sec. 5. The department may adopt rules necessary 11
to implement this chapter.12
NEW SECTION. Sec. 6. The department of revenue shall provide 13
technical assistance, as requested by the department to implement 14
this chapter.15
Sec. 7. RCW 70.225.040 and 2020 c 80 s 50 are each amended to 16
read as follows: 17
(1) All information submitted to the prescription monitoring 18
program is confidential, exempt from public inspection, copying, and 19
disclosure under chapter 42.56 RCW, not subject to subpoena or 20
discovery in any civil action, and protected under federal health 21
care information privacy requirements, except as provided in 22
subsections (3) through (6) of this section. Such confidentiality and 23
exemption from disclosure continues whenever information from the 24
prescription monitoring program is provided to a requestor under 25
subsection (3), (4), (5), or (6) of this section except when used in 26
proceedings specifically authorized in subsection (3), (4), or (5) of 27
this section. 28
(2) The department must maintain procedures to ensure that the 29
privacy and confidentiality of all information collected, recorded, 30
transmitted, and maintained including, but not limited to, the 31
prescriber, requestor, dispenser, patient, and persons who received 32
prescriptions from dispensers, is not disclosed to persons except as 33
in subsections (3) through (6) of this section. 34
(3) The department may provide data in the prescription 35
monitoring program to the following persons: 36
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(a) Persons authorized to prescribe or dispense controlled 1
substances or legend drugs, for the purpose of providing medical or 2
pharmaceutical care for their patients; 3
(b) An individual who requests the individual's own prescription 4
monitoring information; 5
(c) A health professional licensing, certification, or regulatory 6
agency or entity in this or another jurisdiction. Consistent with 7
current practice, the data provided may be used in legal proceedings 8
concerning the license; 9
(d) Appropriate law enforcement or prosecutorial officials, 10
including local, state, and federal officials and officials of 11
federally recognized tribes, who are engaged in a bona fide specific 12
investigation involving a designated person; 13
(e) The director or the director's designee within the health 14
care authority regarding medicaid recipients and members of the 15
health care authority self-funded or self-insured health plans;16
(f) The director or director's designee within the department of 17
labor and industries regarding workers' compensation claimants;18
(g) The director or the director's designee within the department 19
of corrections regarding offenders committed to the department of 20
corrections; 21
(h) Other entities under grand jury subpoena or court order;22
(i) Personnel of the department for purposes of:23
(i) Assessing prescribing and treatment practices and morbidity 24
and mortality related to use of controlled substances and developing 25
and implementing initiatives to protect the public health including, 26
but not limited to, initiatives to address opioid use disorder;27
(ii) Providing quality improvement feedback to prescribers, 28
including comparison of their respective data to aggregate data for 29
prescribers with the same type of license and same specialty; and30
(iii) Administration and enforcement of this chapter or chapter 31
69.50 or 69.--- (the new chapter created in section 8 of this act) 32
RCW; 33
(j) Personnel of a test site that meet the standards under RCW 34
70.225.070 pursuant to an agreement between the test site and a 35
person identified in (a) of this subsection to provide assistance in 36
determining which medications are being used by an identified patient 37
who is under the care of that person; 38
(k) A health care facility or entity for the purpose of providing 39
medical or pharmaceutical care to the patients of the facility or 40
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entity, or for quality improvement purposes if the facility or entity 1
is licensed by the department or is licensed or certified under 2
chapter 71.24, 71.34, or 71.05 RCW or is an entity deemed for 3
purposes of chapter 71.24 RCW to meet state minimum standards as a 4
result of accreditation by a recognized behavioral health accrediting 5
body, or is operated by the federal government or a federally 6
recognized Indian tribe; 7
(l) A health care provider group of five or more prescribers or 8
dispensers for purposes of providing medical or pharmaceutical care 9
to the patients of the provider group, or for quality improvement 10
purposes if all the prescribers or dispensers in the provider group 11
are licensed by the department or the provider group is operated by 12
the federal government or a federally recognized Indian tribe;13
(m) The local health officer of a local health jurisdiction for 14
the purposes of patient follow-up and care coordination following a 15
controlled substance overdose event. For the purposes of this 16
subsection "local health officer" has the same meaning as in RCW 17
70.05.010; and 18
(n) The coordinated care electronic tracking program developed in 19
response to section 213, chapter 7, Laws of 2012 2nd sp. sess., 20
commonly referred to as the seven best practices in emergency 21
medicine, for the purposes of providing: 22
(i) Prescription monitoring program data to emergency department 23
personnel when the patient registers in the emergency department; and24
(ii) Notice to local health officers who have made opioid-related 25
overdose a notifiable condition under RCW 70.05.070 as authorized by 26
rules adopted under RCW 43.20.050, providers, appropriate care 27
coordination staff, and prescribers listed in the patient's 28
prescription monitoring program record that the patient has 29
experienced a controlled substance overdose event. The department 30
shall determine the content and format of the notice in consultation 31
with the Washington state hospital association, Washington state 32
medical association, and Washington state health care authority, and 33
the notice may be modified as necessary to reflect current needs and 34
best practices. 35
(4) The department shall, on at least a quarterly basis, and 36
pursuant to a schedule determined by the department, provide a 37
facility or entity identified under subsection (3)(k) of this section 38
or a provider group identified under subsection (3)(l) of this 39
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section with facility or entity and individual prescriber information 1
if the facility, entity, or provider group: 2
(a) Uses the information only for internal quality improvement 3
and individual prescriber quality improvement feedback purposes and 4
does not use the information as the sole basis for any medical staff 5
sanction or adverse employment action; and 6
(b) Provides to the department a standardized list of current 7
prescribers of the facility, entity, or provider group. The specific 8
facility, entity, or provider group information provided pursuant to 9
this subsection and the requirements under this subsection must be 10
determined by the department in consultation with the Washington 11
state hospital association, Washington state medical association, and 12
Washington state health care authority, and may be modified as 13
necessary to reflect current needs and best practices.14
(5)(a) The department may publish or provide data to public or 15
private entities for statistical, research, or educational purposes 16
after removing information that could be used directly or indirectly 17
to identify individual patients, requestors, dispensers, prescribers, 18
and persons who received prescriptions from dispensers. Direct and 19
indirect patient identifiers may be provided for research that has 20
been approved by the Washington state institutional review board and 21
by the department through a data-sharing agreement.22
(b)(i) The department may provide dispenser and prescriber data 23
and data that includes indirect patient identifiers to the Washington 24
state hospital association for use solely in connection with its 25
coordinated quality improvement program maintained under RCW 26
43.70.510 after entering into a data use agreement as specified in 27
RCW 43.70.052(((8))) (10) with the association. The department may 28
provide dispenser and prescriber data and data that includes indirect 29
patient identifiers to the Washington state medical association for 30
use solely in connection with its coordinated quality improvement 31
program maintained under RCW 43.70.510 after entering into a data use 32
agreement with the association. 33
(ii) The department may provide data including direct and 34
indirect patient identifiers to the department of social and health 35
services office of research and data analysis, the department of 36
labor and industries, and the health care authority for research that 37
has been approved by the Washington state institutional review board 38
and, with a data-sharing agreement approved by the department, for 39
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public health purposes to improve the prevention or treatment of 1
substance use disorders. 2
(iii) The department may provide a prescriber feedback report to 3
the largest health professional association representing each of the 4
prescribing professions. The health professional associations must 5
distribute the feedback report to prescribers engaged in the 6
professions represented by the associations for quality improvement 7
purposes, so long as the reports contain no direct patient 8
identifiers that could be used to identify individual patients, 9
dispensers, and persons who received prescriptions from dispensers, 10
and the association enters into a written data-sharing agreement with 11
the department. However, reports may include indirect patient 12
identifiers as agreed to by the department and the association in a 13
written data-sharing agreement. 14
(c) For the purposes of this subsection: 15
(i) "Indirect patient identifiers" means data that may include: 16
Hospital or provider identifiers, a five-digit zip code, county, 17
state, and country of resident; dates that include month and year; 18
age in years; and race and ethnicity; but does not include the 19
patient's first name; middle name; last name; social security number; 20
control or medical record number; zip code plus four digits; dates 21
that include day, month, and year; or admission and discharge date in 22
combination; and 23
(ii) "Prescribing professions" include: 24
(A) Allopathic physicians and physician assistants;25
(B) Osteopathic physicians; 26
(C) Podiatric physicians; 27
(D) Dentists; and 28
(E) Advanced registered nurse practitioners. 29
(6) The department may enter into agreements to exchange 30
prescription monitoring program data with established prescription 31
monitoring programs in other jurisdictions. Under these agreements, 32
the department may share prescription monitoring system data 33
containing direct and indirect patient identifiers with other 34
jurisdictions through a clearinghouse or prescription monitoring 35
program data exchange that meets federal health care information 36
privacy requirements. Data the department receives from other 37
jurisdictions must be retained, used, protected, and destroyed as 38
provided by the agreements to the extent consistent with the laws in 39
this state. 40
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(7) Persons authorized in subsections (3) through (6) of this 1
section to receive data in the prescription monitoring program from 2
the department, acting in good faith, are immune from any civil, 3
criminal, disciplinary, or administrative liability that might 4
otherwise be incurred or imposed for acting under this chapter.5
NEW SECTION. Sec. 8. Sections 1 through 6 of this act 6
constitute a new chapter in Title 69 RCW.7
NEW SECTION. Sec. 9. This act takes effect January 1, 2026.8
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