PHOTO: As of March 27, state Public Health Law requires your prescriber to electronically prescribe all your prescription medications directly to the pharmacy. Courtesy of Medscape
By Michael V. Cusenza
The days of attempting to decipher your doctor’s chicken-scratch are over.
As of this past Sunday, March 27, state Public Health Law requires physicians to electronically prescribe all prescription medications directly to pharmacies. Prescriptions will no longer be handwritten or called in to your pharmacy, except in limited circumstances.
The new condition is part of the Internet System for Tracking Over-Prescribing/Prescription Monitoring Program law, which was enacted in 2013 to help stem the tide of “doctor shopping,” where prescription painkiller addicts and dealers visit as many physicians as possible in order to obtain multiple scripts for controlled substances.
According to the state Department of Health, I-STOP/PMP “provides practitioners and pharmacists with direct, secure access to view their patients’ recent controlled substance prescription history to help them better evaluate a patient’s treatment as it pertains to controlled substance prescribing and dispensing.”
State Sen. Joe Addabbo, Jr. (D-Howard Beach) said, “The hope is that the law will reduce the number of stolen or fraudulent prescriptions, which is dangerous and extremely costly to the state, combat prescription drug addiction and otherwise save lives that are now being lost to abuse.”
More than 60,000 practitioners are already e-prescribing and registering their certified software with DOH. According to state statistics, I-STOP has led to a 90 percent drop in the number of doctor shoppers.
“I have heard from some of my concerned constituents that this new procedure will make it more difficult for them to comparison shop for the lowest drug prices, and I am looking into this issue further,” Addabbo said.“However, for patients who have access to the Internet and who know what drugs their physician is prescribing for them, they should be able to check the prices online and then tell their doctor where to send the e-prescription.”
Addabbo noted that there are a number of online drug price comparison websites New Yorkers can utilize, including the site maintained by DOH: https://apps.health.ny.gov/pdpw/SearchDrugs/Home.action.
“The information on this site is provided by the New York State Board of Pharmacy and includes data about the 150 most frequently prescribed drugs,” he said.
Addabbo also noted that during disasters and technological or electrical failures, written prescriptions using official state forms may be used by practitioners.
“For many individuals, e-prescribing is not new,” he added. “But for those who are accustomed to paper prescriptions, I want to make them aware of the new system and that I will continue to monitor its effect on consumers.”
michael@theforumnewsgroup.com
