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Painkiller crackdown proposed
Some lawmakers want to set up a statewide painkiller prescription database, to help doctors and pharmacists foil bogus patients and keep those pills from being resold on the streets. But the medical community is divided on whether the problem is significant enough to outweigh the downside of collecting more private data on patients and doctors. The computerized monitoring system is already in use in 22 other states, according to Dr David M Schultz, a pain specialist backing the idea. Schultz, medical director for the Medical Advanced Pain Specialists clinics in the Twin Cities says it's an effort to curtail the abuse of prescription pain medications. "An older couple who looked very legitimate, had very legitimate pain stories and nevertheless they were taking our drugs and selling them to teenagers in their neighborhood," Schultz told KARE 11 Thursday in Edina. He became aware of it when parents of those teenagers called to tell him they'd found the drugs in their teens' rooms, in bottles with his name as the prescribing doctor. He says with Oxycontin selling at $1 per milligram it's easy to understand the temptation it presents to dealers who pass themselves off as patients. "They get a prescription from me, and then might go down the street and get a similar prescription form someone else, and might go to Wisconsin the next day and get more prescriptions there." In theory the database would allow any physician or pharmacist to run a patient's name through a computer crosscheck, to detect if that person is attempting to get multiple prescriptions for the same condition. "That's the apple pie and Chevrolet part of the thing," says pain specialist A.V. "Al" Anderson in Saint Louis Park. Dr Anderson, a member of the state medical board, opposes the idea of collecting that data on patients for a variety of reasons. At the top of his list of objections are privacy issues. "We don't need new databases," he told KARE 11 Thursday. "And this particular database is probably the most socially sensitive. Of all the medications we give, this group of medications is the one that makes people think that something?s wrong with you." Dr Anderson worries the information could fall into the wrong hands -- potential employers or worse the drug dealers themselves. "You could find out what medication the person's taking, when they're going to be filling it, what pharmacy and their home address." Anderson believes such a database would also result in doctors as a whole writing fewer pain pill prescriptions overall. "And Minnesota already ranks in the bottom 15 states in terms of treating pain," he remarked. That would push more patients toward pain injections and implantable pain management devices which Anderson believes are not appropriate in all cases. St Paul pharmacist Tom Sengupta told KARE 11 that collecting and storing more private data on patients and drug transactions is a high price to pay for combatting street sales of painkillers. "We have to very cautious about who gets this data," he said between waiting on patients Thursday. "If the insurance company will be getting this data or not, and how?re you gonna protect that. Without that protection I?ll be against it." The proponent Dr Schultz said language will be written into the bill to addres privacy concerns. Schultz says he doesn't like new databases per se either but this one is worth trying. "I don?t want any more hassles or restrictions, but on the other hand I feel obligated to really know where these medicines are going."
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