VT house bill differs with Gov. on access to prescription records

Gov. Peter Shumlin, in his State of the State address in January, said he wanted the Legislature to pass a bill that would allow a select team of three Vermont State Police investigators access to the Vermont Prescription Monitoring System, which tracks the dispensing of medications like OxyContin and other opiates around the state. Instead, the bill sponsored by Rep. Ann Pugh, D-South Burlington, chair of the House Human Services Committee, would limit access to the state's Public Safety commissioner, who would seek the data via a request to the Health commissioner in cases where there was a "serious and imminent threat to a person or to the public."