Prescription monitoring program moves closer to reality
Jul. 9—After a bruising legislative battle that took years, a statewide prescription drug monitoring program finally is ready to launch.
Legislation for the program in Missouri was passed in May 2021. Now, it's set to come online in the next few weeks, although an exact date is unknown. The goal is to help track opioid prescriptions and prevent possible abuse.
Many of the counties within Missouri are already part of an existing monitoring program run out of St. Louis. This program already covers 85% of the state's population and has allowed information to be shared with 28 states. That database will continue to operate until the statewide program is available.
Dr. Robert Corder at The Center, A Samaritan Center, said the statewide program has been a long time coming.
"I think it'll (the PDMP) be handy for us. It'll be another method to make sure we're giving good medical care," Corder said.
The Center has made use of the St. Louis program in the last month to keep track of patients.
"We assume that patients are telling us the truth and they're not cheating and going somewhere else or just buying the drugs here and selling them or getting drugs somewhere else. I think we're going to probably do more checking than we were doing," Corder said. "It was important to have had that PDMP because it not only helped us to make sure the patients were getting the right treatment, but it was also eliminating doctors that were overprescribing opioids that were then causing more addiction to happen in the in the in the state."
Not every prescription will be tracked. Those that will be monitored are schedule II, III, and IV controlled substances. Some of those drugs include Xanax, Vicodin and fentanyl.
The monitoring database also will assist law enforcement in tracking various crimes.
Capt. Shawn Collie of the Buchanan County Drug Strike Force said it specifically will be used as a tool to protect individuals.
"It's not for us to sit and try to go through millions of patients to see what prescriptions are being prescribed to somebody," he said. "It is specifically for us to be notified any time there's concern of a theft, identity theft, any type of doctor shopping or misuse of pharmaceuticals."
Collie said while there has been some frustration that the program hasn't been put into practice yet, he thinks the delay will pay off.
"Obviously, if it's something we can use to help save lives, that's always frustrating if we can't get something in place," he said. "But again with that, we want to make sure what's put in place is fair, accurate and something that is safe for the community as well."
Riley Funk can be reached at riley.funk@newspressnow.com.
