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Read. Follow. Verify.New Jersey Bill A289 Expands Opioid Initial Prescription Limit to Seven Days
Last action · January 13, 2026: Introduced, Referred to Assembly Health CommitteeSponsors: Paul Kanitra and 1 other
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What This Bill Would Do
Assembly Bill 289 increases the initial prescription limit for opioid medications from a five-day supply to a seven-day supply for acute pain treatment. The measure applies to health care practitioners and physicians, while maintaining exceptions for chronic pain, cancer care, hospice, palliative care, and long-term care facilities.
Patients beginning opioid treatments for acute pain face new prescribing limits, while health care practitioners must adjust their maximum initial dispensing caps and consultation workflows.
- New Jersey previously established a five-day initial prescription limit for acute pain opioids under prior legislative enactments. context
- The General Assembly is the lower house of the New Jersey Legislature. context
Who It Would Affect
Groups the bill's text would affect if enacted, as described in the record. Being affected is not a position for or against it.
health care practitioners
Practitioners must limit initial opioid prescriptions to seven days, conduct required patient histories, check prescription monitoring programs, and issue opioid antidotes under specified risk conditions.
patients prescribed opioid medications
Patients face a revised initial prescription cap of seven days for acute pain and are subject to mandatory risk discussions and potential opioid antidote prescriptions.
health insurance carriers
Carriers must structure policy cost-sharing, co-payments, and deductibles for initial opioid prescriptions to be proportional or equivalent to a 30-day supply without extra refill charges.
Key Facts
You don't have to trust us. Each fact below is taken straight from the official document - click any one to see the exact passage, highlighted in the original.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are there exemptions to the seven-day limit?
When is a practitioner required to issue a prescription for an opioid antidote?
What else do you want to know?
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Votes, people, money & the original sourceWhere This Stands
Currently in committee. The next step in the legislative lifecycle is Floor Vote.
Procedural history
1 action- Jan 13, 2026HouseIntroducedIntroduced, Referred to Assembly Health Committee
Version history
Only one version on file - nothing to compare yet. As later stages (committee substitute, engrossed, enrolled) are captured, the redline appears here.
View official text →Lobbying Activity
No state lobbying filings in our records match this bill. Federal lobbying reports (LDA) cover Congress, so they are not listed on state bills.
Full breakdown
Who this bill affects and the strongest case for and against it, written only from the bill’s own text.
Sponsors
Discoveries
Patterns POLISCOPE noticed across the record. These are observations to investigate, not conclusions.
Extension of Acute Opioid Limits
The legislation extends New Jersey's acute pain initial opioid prescription cap from five days to seven days.
Sources
njleg.state.nj.us
Analysis Score
0–100- Significance75How much this matters to a regular citizen
- Controversy35Intensity of disagreement among stakeholders
- Entertainment5Compellingness for a non-policy-wonk reader
- Buzz40Current news / social attention level
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