Less than a year after the Florida Legislature passed a sweeping bill that requires physicians to check a statewide database before ordering opioids for patients, lawmakers are being asked to consider an exemption for doctors who care for dying people.

It’s not because the requirement is burdensome for the doctors, said Stephen Leedy, a board-certified hospice and palliative care physician. Instead, it’s because checking the prescription-drug database each time controlled substances are ordered for dying people leads to delays, causing the patients to unnecessarily suffer at the end of life, he said.