SALT LAKE CITY — A Senate committee gave a favorable recommendation to a bill that would tighten liability protections for people administering opiate overdose reversal drugs.
HB66 passed the Senate Health and Human Services Committee with a 7-0 vote, and now heads to the Senate floor.
The bill's sponsor, Rep. Carol Spackman Moss, D-Holladay, said when lawmakers passed the Opiate Overdose Response Act last year to help prevent overdose deaths, they thought they had included ample liability protections for providers who administer the naloxone drug.
"Some felt like it wasn't absolutely explicit," she said, so HB66 adds some more specific protections.
The bill includes protections for pharmacists, overdose outreach providers — including law enforcement, fire department officials or other emergency response personnel — or people other than a health care provider whenever they administer the drug in good faith that the individual is believed to be experiencing an overdose.
Moss said since last year's law was passed, more than 400 overdose reversals have been reported.
"We're saving lives," she said.