PeaceHealth issues medical marijuana rules for entire system

PeaceHealth doctors can no longer sign medical marijuana forms for most patients under new rules meant to make sure its medical operations in Washington state, Alaska and Oregon are all following the same policies.

Voters in all three states approved, in 1998, the use of medical marijuana. The states’ voters also have legalized recreational marijuana in recent years.

PeaceHealth’s new policy went into effect Wednesday, Oct. 21.

“We’re taking more of an approach of trying to systematize it and come up with policies that meet with all of the regulations in every state,” said Dr. Maryanne Scott, vice president and medical director for PeaceHealth Medical Group in the Northwest Network.

In Oregon, PeaceHealth announced its decision on its website. The medical care provider said its doctors no longer would fill out the forms, even if they had in the past, in order to comply with federal law.

Marijuana remains illegal under federal law, and Scott said PeaceHealth didn’t want to put its Medicare and Medicaid contracts at risk.

She also referred to a concern about a significant drug abuse issue in Whatcom County.

Still, the policy isn’t much of a change for PeaceHealth operations in the Northwest Network, which includes Whatcom County.

“It was pretty rare that we would write it,” Scott said.

Doctors here couldn’t sign the form for patients under the previous policy unless there were “exceptional circumstances,” she said.

The new policy approved this week more clearly spells out what those exceptions could be, Scott added.

One would be a patient with advanced multiple sclerosis who has severe muscle spasticity and chronic pain that isn’t being managed by other means, she explained.

PeaceHealth’s policy doesn’t mean that its doctors won’t talk to patients who are using medical marijuana. They do want to make sure patients are using it as safely as possible, Scott said.

PeaceHealth, which operates the only hospital in Whatcom County, is the primary medical care provider here.

Scott didn’t think PeaceHealth’s policy was a burden on patients.

“It’s pretty easy in Whatcom County to get marijuana if you want it,” she said. “It’s readily available.”

Recreational marijuana is more expensive than medical marijuana, though.

After years of not regulating medical marijuana, Washington is in the process of doing so. That includes folding the medical market into the recreational industry. The state isn’t alone in doing so retroactively. Other states are, too, and they’re all facing challenges and creating confusion as they attempt to do so.

And while PeaceHealth has put one policy into place for all of its providers, Family Care Network — the other large health care provider in Whatcom County — has not.

“The reality is medical marijuana is simply one more tool available to help us treat certain conditions,” said Dr. Bertha Safford, vice president and medical director for Family Care Network.

“As an organization, we definitely do not have a stand on it,” Safford added. “I do know that some of our physicians certainly will use it in appropriate circumstances on their own patients.”

The Whatcom County Medical Society doesn’t have a policy on medical marijuana, nor does it keep a list of doctors who are willing to authorize its use for certain medical conditions allowed under state law.

“I think that there are a wide range of approaches and philosophies among physicians, and of course, it depends on the particular patient characteristics, as well,” said Dr. Bree Johnston, who is president of the medical society.

“It is difficult for the society to keep track of which physicians will sign forms and under what circumstances,” Johnston said, adding that most doctors are reluctant to be publicly identified as someone who would authorize the use of medical marijuana.

“There is an implication of a promise to do so,” she explained, “which is rarely the case in a blanket sort of way.”

This story was originally published October 24, 2015 at 1:00 PM with the headline "PeaceHealth issues medical marijuana rules for entire system."