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Proposed Senate bill seeks to establish narcotics database in Pa.

By Tara Rack-Amber trackamber@heraldstandard.Com 3 min read
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Physicians across the state are supporting a Senate bill proposed by the Pennsylvania Medical Society that would create a controlled substance database that they could access to cross-reference a patient’s narcotic medication.

The proposed Achieving Better Care by Monitoring all Prescriptions Program (ABC-MAP) would allow doctors to search for a patient and find out what specific narcotics they have been prescribed in hopes of identifying patients who “shop around” for doctors who will prescribe unnecessary narcotics to feed their addiction.

“We can sometimes query different (medications) depending on different insurance plans, and we can query different insurances, but not across the state and across different pharmacies,” said Dr. Jeffery Frye, the medical director of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Uniontown Hospital, on the current system in place. “West Virginia has the system statewide where you can see who sold what.”

According to the West Virginia Board of Pharmacy, the Controlled Substance Automated Prescription Program (CSAPP) allows physicians, pharmacists, dentists, veterinarians, physician assistants, advanced practice nurses and other prescribers and dispensers, who have registered with the program, controlled across the website. The goal is,”to help well-informed prescribers and pharmacists use their professional expertise to evaluate their patients care and assist in the help and prevention to those patients who may be abusing controlled substances.”

The ABC-MAP passed the Senate in May, but is currently sitting in committee in the House during summer recess, and most likely will be sent back to the Senate with amendments.

Dr. Robert Whipkey, part of the emergency medicine physicians at Excela Health and vice president of the Pennsylvania Chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians, said his organization and the Pennsylvania Medical Society will make changes and present the proposed bill again.

“It needs some buffing up. It is supposed to let us look into if someone has been prescribed narcotics,” he said. “The way the bill is written, every time a physician wants to prescribe a medication, they need to consult the database.”

Whipkey said he had some issues with the original wording of the bill regarding the limitations of prescribing narcotics. For example, Whipkey said, a patient comes to the emergency room for a broken leg on a Friday. Because the patient probably would not be able to see an orthopedic doctor until later next week or even longer, the emergency room doctor would be more inclined to prescribe more pain medication to tide them over, he said. This could raise a flag in the new database.

This bill has also called into question some concerns over an invasion of privacy, saying law enforcement would need to acquire a warrant to search their medicine cabinet, but this bill would allow easier access to this information.

“I can see both sides of this. It can be a slippery slope once you give people permission,” said Frye.

But Frye said a controlled substance database could be a tremendous asset in prescribers taking an active role in the prevention of narcotics abuse and helping to identify at-risk individuals.

“It would allow us to know who is filling how much and when. The query database will let us know that they just filled 100 narcotic tablets the other day. That will put up a red flag for us,” he said. “I think the proper people should have access to it; not everyone indiscriminately.”

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