What's New on the PDMP Front around the Country?

Although the fight over whether to implement a prescription drug monitoring program in Florida has captured the most attention in recent months, other states have been making news with their programs, as well.

Minnesota

Message greeting visitors who attempted to access the Minnesota Prescription Monitoring Program website on July 8, 2011: “This website is temporarily disabled due to the current state government service interruption (shutdown). The MN Board of Pharmacy office is closed until further notice” (http://hcp.lv/nrpVbI). This same message was displayed to users attempting to log in to the RxSentry PMP database.

Kansas

According to the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts (http://hcp.lv/naw0tl), “access to query the Kansas Board of Pharmacy’s prescription monitoring database, K-TRACS, is now available to all licensed prescribers and dispensers for the purpose of treating patients.” Registered physicians can log in to the system and “view a patient’s complete controlled substance and drug of concern dispensing history from July 1, 2010 forward.” The system also provides “threshold letters” to prescribers and dispensers “who have a patient that meets a specific threshold of visiting a number of doctors and pharmacies in a given time period and acquiring the same or similar drug.”

Virginia

Starting October 1, 2011, the Virginia state PDMP will require pharmacies and other dispensers to report all prescriptions for schedule II-IV drugs within seven days of dispensing them. The program also requires “non‐resident pharmacies to report all controlled substances dispensed to a patient that resides within the State of Virginia.” Reports should also include the DEA number of the dispenser, the date the prescription was written, whether the prescription is a refill, and the number of refills authorized (http://hcp.lv/qsw0pW).

New York

New York State Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman recently proposed the Internet System for Tracking Over-Prescribing Act (I-STOP), legislation that would create an online database that would provide physicians and pharmacists with “a centralized information system that will help avoid over-prescribing, shut down prescription drug trafficking, and identify and treat patients who seek to abuse prescription drugs” (http://hcp.lv/mZljeT). This proposed improvement to the current New York PDMP would establish a real-time database that would require “physicians and pharmacists to report information when certain controlled substances are prescribed or dispensed.” Physicians, pharmacists, and law enforcement personnel would also be required to complete continuing education programs on the proper use of database and reporting system.

Florida

The state’s PDMP will soon launch under a new name (Electronic- Florida Online Reporting Controlled Substance Evaluation, or E-FORCSE) and with a new requirement for clinicians: they’ll have until November 30 to report on all controlled substances covered by Florida law they’ve provided or dispensed from December 1, 2010 (the start date mandated by the original PDMP bill) through August 31, 2011. Dispensers may register for system access on August 1, 2011, and begin uploading dispensing data into the system on September 1, 2011. Health care practitioners may register to access and begin using the prescription drug monitoring system on October 17, 2011 (http://hcp.lv/nvOCmy).