Enhancing Prescription Drug Monitoring Program

Beginning in FY 2002, Congress appropriated funding to the U.S. Department of Justice to support the Harold Rogers Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP). Prescription monitoring programs 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 monitoring programs have the capability to collect and analyze prescription data much more efficiently than states without such programs, where the collection of prescription information requires the manual review of pharmacy files, a time-consuming and invasive process.

The Prescription Drug Monitoring Program assists states as they plan, implement, or enhance a PDMP to: 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, identify and address sources of diversion, and increase the number of users of the PDMP; facilitate and participate in national evaluation efforts to assess efficiency and effectiveness; encourage and implement the exchange of information among states to prevent cross-border diversion; assess the efficiency and effectiveness of state-level programs to make improvements and encourage additional states to implement programs; and, enhance collaborations with law enforcement, prosecutors, treatment professionals, the medical community, and pharmacies to establish a comprehensive PDMP strategy.

The grant recipient will use the grant funds to enhance Prescription Monitoring Program with interstate data sharing, education, and analysis. The Prescription Monitoring Program is designed to accomplish the following goals: implement interstate data sharing through the PMIX hub with at least two other states; educate potential and current data requesters in importance and use of the data; and use de-identified data provided by researchers to influence policy.

Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services (CHFS) will utilize enhancement funds to enhance the Kentucky All Schedule Prescription Electronic Reporting (KASPER) system by increasing KASPER utilization among health care providers, prescribers, and law enforcement; expanding interstate data sharing using the Prescription Monitoring Information Exchange (PMIX) specifications; implementing performance, security and usability improvements to increase the efficiency of KASPER; and implementing web-based KASPER training for prescribers and dispensers. CHFS will increase authorized KASPER users and KASPER report requests by a minimum of 10% per year. CHFS will also increase prescriber utilization by at least 5%.

CA/NCF