Massachusetts to Improve Online Database to Spot Prescription Drug Abuse
Posted on August 13, 2010In an attempt to curb “doctor shopping,” or going from doctor to doctor in search of multiple prescriptions for dangerously addictive medication, Massachusetts health officials have approved a plan that will give doctors and pharmacists access to an online database that keeps track of patients’ prescriptions.
Although the database will cost about $1 million to set up and $400,000 per year to maintain, it will save more than that in health costs by keeping abusers from feeding their addiction. It will also help doctors better understand which patients are truly in need of the medication and which are abusing powerful painkillers such as Valim and OxyContin.
An estimated 9,000 Massachusetts residents engage in doctor shopping every year, according to Alice Bonner, director of the state Bureau of Health Care Safety and Quality.
More than 600 deaths per year in Massachusetts are due to substance abuse. It isn’t known how many of those involve prescription medication, but studies have suggested that prescription medications make up more than half of deadly overdoses.
Massachusetts already has a prescription monitoring program, but it only covers opiates such as OxyContin, Percocet, and morphine, and doctors don’t have direct access to the data. With the new system, pharmacists will be required to report to the Department of Public Health when they fill prescriptions from many other categories of drugs, such as Vicodin, Darvon, and steroids. The database will also now be updated weekly instead of monthly. Patients or family members will also have to show a form of identification the first time a prescription is filled.
Sources: Associated Press, State plans crackdown on prescription drug abuse, August 12, 2010
Boston.com, Stephen Smith, State OK’s tool to detect prescription drug abuse, August 12, 2010
