Florida Drug Database Gears Up
August 31, 2011
Florida’s long-debated prescription drug database will start taking effect Thursday, with pharmacies and other providers required to report information about dispensing controlled substances such as OxyContin and Xanax.
Providers will be required to submit information within seven days of dispensing the targeted drugs, with the database ultimately to be used to help flag potential drug abusers.
Also, the Florida Department of Health announced this week that a “public health emergency” has been lifted. Surgeon General Frank Farmer imposed the emergency July 1, after it was included in a bill that lawmakers passed this spring to try to crack down on unscrupulous pill mills. The bill called for using the public health emergency to gather and seize dangerous controlled substances from doctors’ offices. The bill bans most doctors from dispensing those drugs.
By The News Service of Florida
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6 Responses to “Florida Drug Database Gears Up”
The actual costs for having a local computer programmed to produce these reports and the time it takes to compile and transmit the reports is carried by each local pharmacy. Another free service to the community from real Pharmacies.
This emergency requirement is more than two years old. Governor Scott declared that he would not fund the database that allows Pharmacies to track or find these drug abusers. So, the Federal Government comes in and has hired another firm that the Pharmacy owners must report the data to. The Plan may or may not work but over 30 other states have similar ability to tell if a drug abuser has gotten his oxycontin or xanax from one Dr. in Pensacola and duplicated it in South Florida where the real problem is and got the same drugs in the same time frame. I read in the NY Times over 80 percent of this problem is in Miami. Miami is the city where the DEA lives and Pharmacies send other reports to. Maybe the DEA should just be shut down because they clearly are doing nothing but selling licenses. Most of the pills that have hit the street came from Doctors who were selling the medications in their offices and no Pharmacy was even involved. They have dispensing machines in their offices or in a building next door. Probably the Governor has a financial interest in this, like the drug testing that school and state employees must now undergo. They contracted with a company that Governor Scott controls for these new tests.
Please expound, friction, as to what the actions of the state have to do with HIPAA
Purdue pharmacuetical is not going to be happy about this, but I am! Those oxy fiends commit a lot of crime, then you have the multi millionaires, walking around with a fentanyl sucker in their mouth. That stuff can kill you, and will most certainly leave you, with a monkey on your back.
Has state of florida ever heard of HIPPA? Where’s the ACLU? Keeping prayer out of schools I guess
thank you state of florida for sucking some more tax dollars!