Implement Florida's Prescription Drug Monitoring Program

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 (PDMP). Prescription drug monitoring programs enhance the capacity of regulatory and law enforcement agencies and public health officials 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.

The Prescription Drug Monitoring Program assists states as they plan, implement, or enhance a PDMP. PDMPs: build a state-level data collection and analysis system to enhance the capacity of regulatory and law enforcement agencies and public health officials for future prevention efforts; enhance existing programs' abilities to analyze and use collected data to identify drug abuse trends and increase the number of users of the PDMP; facilitate national evaluation efforts to ensure continued support; encourage the exchange of information among states to prevent cross-border diversion; assess the efficiency and effectiveness of programs to ensure continued state-level support; and, enhance collaborations with law enforcement, prosecutors, treatment professionals, the medical community, and pharmacies to establish a comprehensive PDMP strategy.

Florida has renewed its efforts to pass legislation creating a prescription drug monitoring program, and the state has substantial professional support, including the medical, osteopathic medicine, nursing, and pharmacy associations. In addition, the legislation is supported by law enforcement and their respective associations, and the state is seeking broad retail support. The primary purpose of Florida's PDMP system will be to assist physicians in the proper treatment of their patients and to reduce their vulnerability to becoming victims of unscrupulous drug seekers. The PDMP will facilitate the early detection of sophisticated scams, doctor shopping, and forgeries. The program will provide law enforcement and other regulatory agencies with the ability to detect diversion earlier and more effectively than is currently possible. It will also significantly reduce costs related to insurance fraud (e.g., Medicaid and Medicare), healthcare investigations, court resources, law enforcement resources, and instances of identity theft.

Following passage of the pending PDMP legislation, the PDMP task force will reconvene its sub-committee for the planning and development team and will work with the core grant team to further develop and finalize the PDMP implementation strategy. This combined group will be known as the implementation group and will implement the plan and complete all critical activities. The work of the implementation group will be assessed by the program implementation and oversight workgroup, which will report annually on the efficiency and effectiveness of PDMP implementation and lessons learned.

CA/NCF