Alaska Prescription Drug Monitoring Project

Since the beginning of FY 2002, Congress has appropriated funding to the U.S. Department of Justice to support the Harold Rogers Prescription Drug Monitoring Program. Prescription drug monitoring programs enhance the capacity of regulatory and law enforcement agencies to collect and analyze controlled substance prescription data through a centralized database administered by an authorized state agency. These programs are designed to help prevent and detect the diversion and abuse of pharmaceutical controlled substances, particularly at the retail level where no other automated information collection system exists.

States that have implemented prescription drug monitoring programs have the capability of collecting and analyzing prescription data much more efficiently than states without such programs, where the collection of prescription information requires the manual review of pharmacy files which is a very time consuming and invasive process. The increased efficiency of prescription drug monitoring programs allows for the early detection of abuse trends and possible sources of diversion.

The Alaska Division of Corporations, Business & Professional Licensing (Division), within the Alaska Department of Community, Commerce and Economic Development, will establish and administer an electronic prescription monitoring program through a central database housed in its office complex in Anchorage. The database will receive electronic prescription information from all dispensers of controlled substances, in all schedules, to all Alaska residents, including pharmacies located in or out of the state, as well as those practitioners who dispense controlled substances to their patients.

The Division will also establish a web-enabled portal to the database. This portal will enable authorized users of the database to send inquiries, and receive timely responses from program administrators. Authorized users will include qualified individuals from five separate communities: law enforcement agencies, health professional regulatory agencies for prescribers and dispensers, prescribers monitoring their own patients, dispensers monitoring their own patients, and addiction treatment professionals.

CA/NCF