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Florida Prescription Database Goes Online
October 17, 2011
After years of debate about privacy issues and deadly drug use, Florida doctors and pharmacists started tapping into a state database Monday to check out patients’ prescription histories.
The database is aimed at curbing prescription-drug abuse and “doctor shopping” — addicts going from doctor to doctor to try to score prescriptions for powerful painkillers such as OxyContin.
Sen. Mike Fasano, a New Port Richey Republican who was a key player in getting the database approved, said he views it as the most-important part of the state’s effort to fight prescription drug abuse. He said it will save lives.
“It’s a long time coming,” Fasano said Friday. “It’s a database that was needed many years ago.”
Doctors and pharmacists are not required to get information from the database, but Fasano said he will propose legislation next year to make it mandatory.
Two of the state’s most-influential physician groups, the Florida Medical Association and the Florida Osteopathic Medical Association, have encouraged their members to take part.
In a recent message to his members, Florida Osteopathic Medical Association President Jeffrey Grove wrote that they would “be able to query the database for any indication a patient is engaging in the practice of doctor shopping for the expressed purpose of accumulating prescription drugs for illicit reasons. There is no requirement to query the database prior to writing a prescription, but the FOMA strongly encourages you to do so.”
Tad Fisher, executive vice president of the Florida Academy of Family Physicians, said the database could be valuable when doctors do not know patients, such as “walk-in” patients at physicians’ offices or urgent-care centers.
“The conversation has always been that a database could be very helpful for patients that you don’t have any history on at all,” Fisher said.
Lawmakers approved creating the database in 2009, but it has long faced controversy because of concerns about patient privacy.
Gov. Rick Scott and House Republican leaders this year raised the possibility of scrapping the database, but that idea ultimately died, at least in part, because of opposition from Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island.
Florida has received a reputation in recent years as a magnet for prescription-drug abusers and traffickers from as far away as Ohio and Kentucky. Unscrupulous storefront pain clinics in Broward, Palm Beach and other counties became notorious for prescribing — and in many cases dispensing — painkillers.
Lawmakers have passed a series of laws to try to crack down on the problems. For example, a law this year barred many doctors from dispensing dangerous controlled substances in their offices, forcing patients to take prescriptions to pharmacies.
Along with facing political opposition, the start of the database was hamstrung by a bid dispute among contractors.
But pharmacies and dispensing physicians in September began loading prescription records into the database. They are required to report information to the database within seven days of dispensing drugs such as OxyContin, Xanax and Valium.
Pharmacies and doctors have already put more than 15 million controlled-substance prescription records into the database, according to the Florida Department of Health.
Doctors and pharmacists who use the system will receive reports that show patient prescription histories, helping them detect possible abuse.
By Jim Saunders
The News Service of Florida
Comments
17 Responses to “Florida Prescription Database Goes Online”
You “privacy” people are cluless. There needs to be regulation to prevent crooked and money hungry doctors from prescribing drugs to patients that do not need them. These “pill mills” are no different than the neighborhood crack dealer. OxyContin is no different than heroin. NONE. Dont believe me? Look it up.
Here is a great documentary on the problem: The OxyContin Express. The sheriff in the movie is from Kentucky where there is a huge Oxy epidemic. All the pills are coming from Flordia. He tells the host “All the profit is in Flordia, and all the problems and pain are here in Kentucky”. Trafficking, theft, deaths, incarceration, etc are what is happening in many states because of this drug.
To all the “privacy” people: use your brain next time before you make ridiculous statements about privacy and freedom. Im sure you would be crying for regulation if your child died from an overdose from the drug. And you later found out that he walked into a clinic without a damn thing wrong with him and was able to walk out with 180 pills of one of the most strongest pills on the market.
Kathy I couldnt agree more!
I think that the biggest issue is that if they start regulating this if people think that “only” the pharnmacist and the doctor will see your info and never comment to a third party then you really don t no people. Some people that are in pain now will not go see a dr. becuase of the styma that goes along with pain management and they spend their lives in pain as grumpy old people when they are forty and could be helped. Our Govt should not be in our healthcare. At least that is how I feel the next thing will be that they will make legislation to tell the pain dr. s how much medicine each person should recieve! If you had a car accident at 20 yrs old and had been on these meds for ten years but a Govt person decided that you are to young to be taking a high dosage (not your dr deciding) would you feel the same way. Because that will be the next law that will be passed! It is not about who is doing what it is about the slippery slope of letting Govt run our lives and our health! just my opinion
I am so glad that a law like this is coming out and I hope they make it mandatory for all doctors to use it. I know of several people that doctor shop all the time for drugs. Then again who’s to say that they doctor’s will even use the system. Not only should they monitor the people getting the drugs, but they should also monitor the doctor’s that prescribe it…just sayin’ it goes both ways.
It’s good that this has happened.Because people are abusing these medications and doing illegal things with the medications,it makes it almost impossible for people with LEGITIMATE injuries, who live in chronic pain from back,neck,knee or other injuries to receive the proper medications to be able to deal with their pain to be able to perform simple things.Such as cleaning their homes,cutting their grass,grocery shopping,family functions,even holding their grand babies.The E.C.S.O. recently sent a blanket letter to physicians threatening them about writing new patient pain prescriptions.Informing them that they would be investigated,possibly arrested,their medical license taken and put in prison.This is because of the growing abuse problem with prescription pills,but at the same time the people who need the medications can’t get them.It’s a shame that we live in a society where the police can threaten doctors and stop them from caring for patients.This is no longer The Republic of America,but The Socialist Republic of America.Welcome to the new police state in which we live.
AMEN!!!!!!!!! to Molino-Anon. Besides if a person is addicted to perscription drugs and you cut them off most will probably change to illegal drugs. Better make sure your doors Locked!
I don’t see a problem with this law. Everyone knows that once the government gets involved , the problem (Dr. shopping) will be solved. Not to mention the new government jobs that will be created to run the program. Surely that will help the economy. Besides , once the problem is fixed I’m sure the program will be discontinued!
@Molino-Anon…. Well said!
Why don”t anyone ever think of the dangers of all the other meds being used to treat pain. Seizure meds are used all the time think about that for a second… well I guess anyone who knows a person with seizures know the risk. I’m sure this law will work great because the laws against crack and meth help a lot and save so many laws.
I was telling a friend the other day, freedom is an illusion, everything in this world is controlled or in the process of being controlled and there’s no such thing as total privacy. Man kind can not have total freedom, total freedom is dubbed anarchy.
The way the government is working is to slowly take away freedoms you once had until X years from now you look back and say “I use to be able to do that.”
If you take freedoms away slowly over generations then ultimately no one will remember when they had more freedoms then they do today. Every time those freedoms are taken away people say “that’s not so bad because…” then another freedom is taken away, and “that’s not so bad because…”
Communism, fascism, democracy, etc. etc. it’s all different levels of control, and this country is slowly moving toward Totalitarianism, wait and see. I’m not a conspiracy theorist, nut job, etc. I pay my taxes, I attend my church, I love my friends and family, and I do what I can to maintain and survive… This is just my perception of the way society is heading in this country.
Wrap it in any pretty acronym or socio-economic cause you need to justify what is happening.
If this database will help control illegal misuse of narcotics then what’s so bad about it. As long as your not abusing your medication prescriptions then you should have nothing to worry about. I don’t see this as a privacy issue at all. The only time a doctor or pharmacist would check the database for your info is when they are attanding to you anyway.
The only people that should worry about this database are the people who are misusing or abusing their prescriptions.
Somehow the statement I was referring to didn’t make it onto my comment.
Amanda I agree with this statement. I don’t care who knows about my drug history as long as I’m on the up-N-up what should it matter.
Look at it this way: say you have a family member who has accidently become dependent on pain killers because of an accident or anything else that may be causing them a lot of pain. Ain’t it nice to know that a system now exist that can help them and maybe stop them from shopping at overseas pharmacys that are selling these drugs online or moving on to worse drugs (cocaine or heroin)?
I’m just saying, sometimes it’s not just about violating everyones privacy.
So, will the pharmacist have the decision to fill or not fill the prescription? I have mixed feelings about this. I know a lot of people who go from state to state Dr. shopping…I think its a great thing…especially considering I personally know people who get food stamps and SELL them to go and buy Lortabs…makes me want to throw up…but, I think it should be a national database…
I could not possibly agree more with you Kathy…!! What happened to the Republican Party that I remember, the one who championed less Government intervention, NOT MORE..!!!
They are only putting in the controlled substance prescriptions, not your entire history. People that work in pharmacies already have access to your medical history (with restrictions) under the laws of HIPPA. This just makes tracking the C2 and C3 prescriptions easier. I work in a pharmacy in Alabama- and we are very wary of filling prescriptions from Florida if they are controls, due to the “pill mills” that have been operating in Florida. The only people that should worry about this database are the people who are misusing or abusing their prescriptions. I wish we would get that here. Say a person breaks a leg or has surgery and gets lortab as a painkiller. Some people start to get addicted to it without even knowing, so pharmacy intervention can stop the early signs of addiction and possibly save that patient time, money and maybe even their life.
This violates everyone’s right to privacy. The data base should only include those with prescriptions for those drugs they are monitoring. Every person that works at
a pharmacy will be able to access each persons medication history. Republicans are suppose to be about individual rights and they have just taken your most private history and put it out there for many people to see. Shame on them.