A federal official has expressed hope that healthcare researchers and professionals will continue to have some kind of substitute resource following the scheduled July 16 shutdown of the National Guidelines Clearinghouse.

Intended to end “surprise medical bills” for consumers, Health and Safety Code Section 1371.30 became effective on July 1, 2017, following Governor Brown’s signature on AB 72 in the 2016 session.

The federal Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) to address the opioid crisis was passed and signed in 2016 with bipartisan support. The passage of CARA included federal grants to help boost state databases that flag patients who may be overusing prescription drugs.

Trying to get a handle on the evolving opioid epidemic has stakeholders at multiple levels in government looking for new approaches. To call it an epidemic and declared a crisis by the federal government is a reflection of data from HHS that opioid-related deaths have increased more than five times in the past two decades.

As the opioid crisis continues, calls to curb and prevent abuse have become more urgent. As of this writing, the database is not scheduled to be certified by the California Department of Justice until July 2018, meaning that authorized prescribers will be required to start checking January 2019 at the earliest.