Bills would set rules for portable defibrilators, prescription drug list

Two bills intending to reduce two risks — one physical, one financial, both dire — were given unanimous endorsements by a Senate review committee Monday.

HB31 takes advantage of recent technology that puts the capacity of stopping most heart attacks into the hands of anyone who can read the instructions on an automatic external defibrillator. The bill also allows a portable, backpack-size defibrillator that is located in any business or home to be used by the public and emergency services personnel.

HB31, which has already passed the full House and was approved unanimously by the Senate Health and Human Services, also establishes the Utah Sudden Cardiac Arrest Survival Act, which allows a person to administer cardiopulmonary resuscitation or use an AED on a person reasonably believed to be having a heart attack, even if the person offering aid is not certified to provide either form of help. Anyone giving help would be immune from civil liability under the act.

People who own or lease an AED would have to effectively register the equipment and its location to emergency dispatch services for that area.

The bill requires a person who owns or leases an AED to report certain information, sponsor Rep. Carl Wimmer, R-Herriman, told the newspaper. But AEDs are almost foolproof, and the short list of instructions to administer the device is easy to follow, even during a life-and-death situation.

AEDs are designed to intervene in cases of life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias and shock the heart into normal rhythm before a full-blown cardiac arrest is induced. They are not effective and not intended for the nonportable machines used in hospitals to shock hearts that have stopped.

SB87 intends to induce life support of a different sort: saving the state money by removing the automatic override of the preferred drug list for doctors prescribing medications for the 160,000 low-income and disabled Utahns covered by the Medicaid insurance plan. Doctors may still use a medication brand rather than a generic when writing a prescription, but he or she must override the list formally in the patient's file and by writing "medically necessary — dispense as written" on the prescription.

Some exceptions can be made for medications used to control autoimmune disorders.

"All we're asking for here is what 40 other states have decided to do — the ability to ask why someone wants a certain drug," said Sen. Allen Christensen, R-North Ogden. The current policy hasn't proven effective, he added. "This adds both effectiveness and efficiencies, and we really do need the savings."

E-MAIL: jthalman@desnews.com