McCollum urges Crist to approve drug database
by Michael C. Bender | June 8th, 2009Attorney General Bill McCollum sent a letter to Gov. Charlie Crist today urging him to approve a bill that would track prescription drugs sold in Florida.
The bill (SB 462) has been somewhat controversial, despite itsunanimous approval in the Senate and an overwhelming 103-10 vote of support in the House.
The proposal — to fight drug abuse by recording when and where you fill your prescriptions — has been around for years but traditionally failed to get past conservative House leaders, who dismissed it as an invasion of privacy and an expansion of government.
But just days after the bill finally passed this year, a similar database was hacked and held for ransom in Virginia. That news inspired 13 House Republicans (including all 10 who opposed it and three who didn’t vote) to write a letter to Crist urging him to veto the bill.
Now McCollum is weighing in on the issue. In his letter today (read it here), he tells Crist the database would be a “vital tool to combat these destructive crimes.”
“By tracking disbursement of the most serious controlled substances, law enforcement will be able to maximize their efforts to fight ‘doctor shopping’ as well as to identify and stop the small percentage of doctors and clinics who continually write prescriptions to patients not based on medical necessity, but for illicit profit,” McCollum wrote.
Crist will have two weeks to take action on the bill once he receives it from the legislature.
Tags: Bill McCollum, drugs, prescriptions
Where's the money? Use The Post's interactive database of who wants and who's getting federal dollars.
Use these interactive graphics to find and contact Palm Beach County and Treasure Coast legislators.
June 8th, 2009 at 8:25 pm
The database is a tool that can be used by
1) physicians to spot a patient’s doctor shopping history and better control the use of medications,
2) pharmacies to control the use of excessive medication use or abuse,
3) employer health programs to lower their costs when excessive medication use and poor medical management is in play,
4) law enforcement when they discover illegal “pill mills”, and
5) court systems that are overwhelmed by drug related cases,
Also, there are 34 States that already have similar laws / tools in place. Medication “mules” come to Florida to have illegitimate prescriptions filled for $1.00 per pill who then return to the other 34 States to sell the pills on the street for $8.00 per. Florida is known as a donor State.
The benefits far outweigh any real or perceived negatives. Proper security and use protocols are in use in many such applications so fear of abuse is greatly exaggerated.
Tom Aderhold, MS, ARM
Human Resource and Risk Management