STATES TO MONITOR PRESCRIPTION DRUGS

Program May Curb 'Doctor Shopping'

WASHINGTON -- President Bush has signed into law a bill sponsor ed by Rep.
Ed Whitfield of Kentucky to create electronic monitoring programs for
prescriptions in all 50 states .

The legislation that Bush signed late Thursday is intended to prevent the
abuse of prescription drugs.

It creates a grant program for states to create databases and enhance
existing ones in hopes of ending the practice of "doctor shopping" by drug
abusers seeking multiple prescriptions. It would authorize $60 million for
the program through fiscal 2010.

Kentucky's electronic prescription monitoring database, called KASPER --
Kentucky All Schedule Prescription Electronic Reporting -- will be eligible
for enhancement grants under the law .

Establishing programs in adjacent states would help prevent abusers from
crossing borders to get prescription drugs and then bring ing them back
into Kentucky. "It's going to be a tremendous boost (for the Kentucky
program) and be much more effective," said Whitfield , R-1st District .

But some in Congress worry the law will invade privacy.

"This bill lacks fundamental privacy protections, such as notifying
patients if their information has been lost or stolen," said Rep. Edward J.
Markey, D-Mass., whose amendment to add that notification to the bill was
defeated in committee.

Whitfield said his staff worked with Markey and others to address privacy
concerns, including requiring states to have standards for the protection
of information and requiring states to establish penalties for the
unauthorized use of data.

"If we feel like it's being abused we would definitely take action,"
Whitfield said.

A July letter from the American Medical Association in support of the bill
called prescription drug abuse "one of the fastest growing public health
problems" in the United States.

The letter cited a 2002 Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration survey that estimated there were 6.2 million recreational
prescription drugs users.

The bill passed the House by voice vote and the Senate by unanimous consent
last month .

Robert Benvenuti, inspector general of the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and
Family Services, said he hadn't seen full details of the new law but
thought it was going to "be very positive" for Kentucky.

"If all states had the ability to tap into each others' information , we
would know that that person is doctor shopping," Benvenuti said. "It will
allow states to see not only what's going on in their states but what's
going on in other states."

Nineteen states have programs that vary in effectiveness, Whitfield said.

Illinois, which borders his W estern Kentucky district, has a program that
tracks Schedule II drugs, such as cocaine and oxycodone, but not drugs such
as codeine, said John Halliwell, Whitfield's legislative director.

Tennessee and Indiana do not yet have such programs, Halliwell said.

Some federal money has been appropriated for state monitoring programs in
the past on a limited basis. Those grants were administered by the
Department of Justice, but this law will place the program under the
Department of Health and Human Services.

"This is a health problem, and the Department of Health and Human Services
is the most logical place to run a prescription drug program," Whitfield said.