Missouri Politician Cites Privacy in Blocking Prescription Drug Monitoring Program

In Missouri, the only state without a prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP), the state senator blocking approval of the program argues it represents an invasion of privacy, NPR reports.

“The monitoring program would put every citizen’s private drug information on a government database accessible to 30,000 people with usernames and passwords,” said Senator Rob Schaaf, a Republican who is a physician by training. “That’s just an outrage.”

PDMPs track opioid prescriptions, which doctors and pharmacists can check to find patients who are “doctor shopping,” or visiting more than one prescriber to obtain multiple prescriptions.

Other states have had success in fighting opioid abuse through PDMPs. One year after New York required prescribers to check the database before writing a prescription, doctor shopping decreased by an estimated 75 percent. Doctors in many states say PDMPs have helped them identify patients abusing opioids and get them help.

For three years, a bill that would establish a PDMP has passed the Missouri House and moved to the Senate. Each time, Schaaf has blocked the bill. This year, the bill is in committee. A hearing on it has been scheduled, but is unlikely to be taken up by the full Senate before the legislative session ends on May 13, the article notes.

The prescription drug monitoring database bill has the support of groups including the Missouri Academy of Family Physicians, the Missouri American College of Physicians and the Missouri State Medical Association.

The Missouri state representative who is sponsoring the PDMP bill, Holly Rehder, has a cousin who died of a drug overdose. Her sister used heroin, her mother was addicted to prescription drugs and her daughter has struggled with drug abuse for 13 years. Her daughter’s addiction began with a legal prescription for Lorcet, which contains hydrocodone.