Massachusetts health officials approved a plan to crack down on drug addicts who travel from doctor to doctor in search of powerful prescription medications in an attempt to make it easier to detect such "doctor shoppers," according to the Boston Globe. The Public Health Council approved the plan Wednesday, which expands an online prescription monitoring program and establishes a computer network that will allow physicians, nurse-practitioners and pharmacists see patients' current prescriptions.
Since 1992, the state's prescription monitoring program has covered only one category of drugs, including OxyContin, Percocet and morphine. Next year, pharmacies will have to alert the state when they fill prescriptions for a broader range of meds, including steroids and pain relievers such as Vicodin and Darvon.
Instead of being updated monthly, the database will be updated weekly.
Doctors and pharmacists will be able to tap into the database, and a drug history for the patient will pop up. The enhanced database is designed to make it harder for doctors to be duped into prescribing narcotics for addicted patients.
The expanded prescription monitoring database will start early next year. It will cost $1 million to set up and another $400,000 per year to maintain, the Globe reports. Health authorities say the enhanced database could save $2 million in state health insurance.
Some 9,000 Massachusetts residents are suspected of engaging in doctor shopping, according to Alice Bonner, director of the state's Bureau of Health Care Safety and Quality.
Similar measures in Kentucky appear to have had some success. There, doctors have been able to review prescribing records by computer since 2005, and use of the prescription monitoring system has soared, the Globe reports. "Some pain management physicians will obtain a report for every patient for every visit," David Hopkins, project manager for the state monitoring system, told the Globe. Last year more than 500,000 reports were accessed. Other doctors will use the system when a red flag goes off during a patient visit.
To learn more:
- see the Boston Globe article on the crackdown
- read this Boston Globe article on tools to detect prescription drug abuse
- check out this Associated Press article, via the Boston Herald
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