NACDS attended a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing last week, which raised concerns on prescription fraud in the Medicaid program. Significantly for issues that NACDS has advocated for, witnesses at the hearing testified that programs such as e-prescribing and prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) are successful, but Medicaid needs to do more to implement them as part of a strategy to combat opioid abuse.
NACDS has consistently advocated for legislating a requirement that all prescriptions be issued electronically, and for better-coordinated state requirements for reporting and accessing PDMP data. In recent policy proposals to combat the opioid epidemic while providing quality patient care, NACDS noted that a national PDMP would leverage e-prescribing to provide guidance for prescribers and dispensers in real-time when providing patient care. E-prescribing also enhances security and curbs fraud, waste and prescription drug abuse.
On a related note, NACDS will testify at a meeting at the Food and Drug Administration next week to discuss strategies to combat the opioid crisis, including the development of a nationwide PDMP database the utilizes e-prescribing technology. Other proposals to be discussed at the meeting include mandating prescriber documentation when prescribing opioids above a certain threshold; potentially imposing additional measures to improve patient storage and handling of opioids.
For more information, download NACDS’ one-pager on proposed solutions for combating the opioid abuse epidemic.
