National Prescription Drug Database

Most states have a prescription drug database in one form or another which helps doctors monitor people who doctor shop and abuse pharmaceuticals. Such programs have proven to be effective, but do very little if someone decides to travel out of the state and into another. There is a need for a national prescription drug database that would link all of the preexisting databases together.

Fortunately, a federal bill introduced Thursday would do just that by combining all of the monitoring systems. The bill was introduced by a bipartisan group of House and Senate legislators and is being called the Interstate Drug Monitoring Efficiency and Data Sharing Act, The Hill reports.

“While my region of Southern and Eastern Kentucky became ground zero for the abuse of prescription drugs a decade ago, it is now wreaking havoc on communities small and large and cutting across socioeconomic and gender lines,” Rogers said in a news release.

“Prescription drug monitoring programs are one of the most efficient and cost-effective tools in our arsenal to cut back on this abuse, bridging the gap between legitimate medical need and potential misuse.”

Currently, 48 states have prescription drug monitoring programs.