2018 Annual Report
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January 2019 AVMA State Legislative Update: 2018 Annual Report As a service to assist associations in tracking emerging policy trends that are important to the veterinary profession, the AVMA Division of State Advocacy sent more than 1,500 legislative and regulatory alerts in 2018 to state and allied veterinary medical associations. The focus of legislation covered a wide range of topics, including animal cruelty, non-economic damages, pharmaceutical issues, scope of practice, and zoonotic disease. With respect to animal welfare, hundreds of proposals pertaining to animal abuse, cruelty, neglect, tethering, unattended animals, hoarding, and proper living conditions were considered by policymakers. Not one of the six states that considered establishing registries for animal abusers passed such a measure. ➢ California became the first state in the county to prohibit pet store operators from selling a dog, cat, or rabbit unless the animal is obtained from a public animal control agency or shelter, humane society shelter, or rescue group. ➢ New Jersey became the first state in the country to ban elephants and other exotic animals from traveling performances. This new law defines exotic animals as any species of mammal, bird, reptile, amphibian, fish, mollusk, or crustacean that is not indigenous to the state. ➢ Lawmakers in seven states introduced measures to encourage law enforcement and good Samaritans to assist animals trapped in vehicles during extreme heat or cold. Two such states, Louisiana and Pennsylvania, enacted laws that do not hold people liable for damage done to vehicles while rescuing animals in apparent distress. ➢ California and Wisconsin legislatures enacted new laws allowing emergency medical service providers to provide pre-veterinary emergency care to a dog or cat if the provider has received commensurate training and exempting these providers from any civil liability that could arise from providing such care. Although none were enacted, several state legislatures considered bills banning certain elective procedures. ➢ California, Michigan, Rhode Island, and West Virginia rejected measures that would have prohibited the declawing of cats and other animals except for documented therapeutic purposes. ➢ Legislation in Michigan and New York would have required that surgical devocalization only be performed by a licensed veterinarian when it was medically necessary to treat or relieve a physical illness, disease, or injury, or to correct a congenital abnormality suffered by the animal. ➢ In New York and South Carolina, legislation would have prohibited anyone other than a licensed veterinarian from piercing, tattooing, or cropping the ears of a companion animal unless the procedure provided for the identification of the companion animal or provided a medical benefit to the companion animal. Access to compounded medications was a hot topic in 2018. At least two states enacted new laws or regulations that, in general, allow veterinarians to maintain and dispense a limited supply of compounded preparations to a client from office stock under certain circumstances (e.g., the patient’s health is at risk). ➢ In Virginia, a new law allows a veterinarian to dispense a compounded drug, distributed from a pharmacy, when the quantity dispensed is no more than a 7-day supply. ➢ In Illinois, a new regulation allows a pharmacy to compound sterile and nonsterile products for veterinary office use. A veterinarian can dispense up to a 7-day supply of a compounded 1910 Sunderland Place, NW | Washington, DC 20036-1642 | p: 800.321.1473 | www.avma.org veterinary medication, initially intended for office use, to a client with whom the veterinarian has a veterinarian-client-patient-relationship. In a continued response to educate practitioners about the dangers of opioids, five states introduced legislation to amend continuing education requirements (CE) for veterinarians. Illinois, Indiana, Maine, and North Carolina now require veterinarians to complete CE on the administration, prescription, and management of controlled substances. Louisiana enacted a law that exempts veterinarians from the CE requirements pertaining to controlled substances. Related to the medical uses of marijuana, a new law in California requires the Veterinary Medical Board to establish guidelines outlining how veterinarians can legally discuss the use of cannabis in animal patients. However, a bill that failed to advance in New York would have allowed veterinarians to use medical marijuana to treat animal patients. Legislation allowing courts to award noneconomic damages—such as for a loss of companionship or emotional distress in litigation involving animals—was considered by Florida, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York. Responding to the nationwide opioid crisis, policymakers considered measures to establish and change prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) and to limit how opioids are prescribed. At least 17 states proposed modifying current PDMPs and 10 states successfully passed PDMP legislation. ➢ Legislation in Missouri, the lone state lacking a PDMP in 2018, once again failed to establish a statewide PDMP. ➢ In Alabama, a new law removes veterinary medical practitioners from the definition of a practitioner listed in the Controlled Substances Prescription Database statute. ➢ In Indiana, a new law requires veterinarians to obtain patient information from the database before prescribing an opioid or benzodiazepine. ➢ In Louisiana, a new law exempts veterinarians from the query requirement prior to prescribing an opioid. ➢ In Maine, a new law exempts a veterinarian from reporting information to the prescription monitoring program if they dispense an opioid medication or a benzodiazepine in an amount to be used during a period of 48 hours or less. ➢ In North Carolina, a new law removes licensed veterinarians from the definition of a practitioner and reclassifies them as a “dispenser” when that person dispenses any Schedule II-V controlled substances. Under this new law, a licensed veterinarian is not required to query the state’s controlled substance reporting system before issuing a controlled substance prescription. ➢ In Virginia, a new law exempts veterinarians from reporting information to the prescription monitoring program if they dispense a controlled substance for 7 days or less. ➢ In Wyoming, a new law requires veterinarians to enroll in the controlled substance prescription tracking program if that they are authorized to dispense any Schedule II-V controlled substance. Scope-of-practice for veterinarians and other animal-related providers was an area of debate in several states. ➢ A California bill would have allowed a supervised physical therapist to provide animal physical rehabilitation to an animal if certain conditions were met, including a requirement that the physical 1910 Sunderland Place, NW | Washington, DC 20036-1642 | p: 800.321.1473 | www.avma.org therapist work under the supervision of a veterinarian who had established a veterinarian-client- patient-relationship with the animal. ➢ In Colorado, a new law removes the requirement that licensed chiropractors, registered to perform animal chiropractic, obtain a veterinary medical clearance by a licensed veterinarian if animal chiropractic is performed under the direct, on-premises supervision of a licensed veterinarian. ➢ In Nebraska, a new law exempts cat, dog, and equine massage from the practice of veterinary medicine and defines this practice as the application of hands-on massage techniques to increase circulation, relax muscle spasms, relieve tension, enhance muscle tone, and increase range of motion in these animals. ➢ In Tennessee, a new law allows the Department of Health to issue an animal massage therapy certification to any person that completes at least 50 hours of training in anatomy, physiology, kinesiology, and pathologies and successfully passes a test on a person’s aptitude in preventing a delay of care to animals. ➢ An Arkansas Veterinary Medical Examining Board regulation created a certification program for non-veterinarian embryo transfer technicians. ➢ Florida, Indiana, Massachusetts, Utah, and Washington rejected measures pertaining to licensure for non-veterinarian equine dentists. ➢ Massachusetts, New York, and Rhode Island rejected measures pertaining to licensure or certification of pet groomers. The Kentucky legislature overturned a governor’s veto of a bill that would impose a 6% tax on the gross receipts of small animal veterinary services. However, equine and food animal veterinary services are exempt from this sales tax provision. Telemedicine and the impact technology has on veterinary practice and the veterinarian-client-patient relationship (VCPR) culminated in the introduction of bills in Florida, Georgia, and Virginia; a regulation in Oregon; and guidelines in Colorado. ➢ A Florida bill failed to advance through the legislature that would have defined veterinary telemedicine and amend the definition of a VCPR. ➢ In Georgia, a new law clearly defines a VCPR to exist when all conditions outlined in the law are met and that a VCPR cannot be established solely by telephone, computer, or other electronic means. ➢ In Virginia, a new law allows a veterinarian, who performs or has performed an appropriate examination of a patient, to prescribe certain controlled substances to a patient via the practice of telemedicine. ➢ The Oregon Veterinary Medical Examining Board proposed a regulation that would stipulate that veterinary telemedicine may