State officials move to lower prescription drug abuse
The state Public Health Council Wednesday approved regulations aimed at curbing opioid abuse and stemming the practice of "doctor shopping" for prescriptions.
The regulations govern participation in the state's newly mandatory Prescription Monitoring Program, a database with information on prescriptions for controlled substances. The regulations also seek to ease access to naloxone, which can reverse overdoses, by allowing doctors to prescribe the drug to someone other than the patient in need of treatment.
The regulations require a registered individual practitioner to use the program before issuing to a patient for the first-time a prescription for certain narcotic drugs, as well as benzodiazepine, which can be abused as an augmenter of the effects of a narcotic.
The regulations also create a process for revoking and suspending a user's access to the program and allow "delegates," such as nurses in a doctor's practice, to use the system.
"What we're really trying to do is identify people that are 'doctor-shopping,' and this is a tool for doctors to be able to identify that," Public Health Commissioner Cheryl Bartlett said.
Exemptions to the use of the program include prescriptions for hospice patients or if the program isn't operational due to a temporary technological failure.
The regulations also create a 9-member advisory group that will provide the department with information on when a prescriber should be required to use the program for specifically determined Schedule II or III drugs.
According to the Department of Public Health, current enrollment in the prescription monitoring program stands at approximately 25,000 users.
Citing an opioid epidemic, Gov. Deval Patrick declared a public health emergency in March 2014. Fatal opioid overdoses increased by 90 percent between 2000 and 2013, according to a report on Massachusetts health trends released in October.
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