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Who cares
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Sponsors
2 Co-sponsors
History
- Referred to health
Full text
The text isn't available here yet. Check nysenate.gov.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to amend the public health law, in relation to providing pharmacies access to New York's prescription drug monitoring program resources
Purpose
To allow pharmacies to request access to certain New York's Prescription Drug Monitoring Program data, in order to determine a prescription's authenticity, whether it was already filled by another pharmacy or physician, and whether the patient has engaged in "doctor shopping". New York's physicians already have this ability.
Summary of provisions
Section 1. Allows an exemption for pharmacies.
Existing law
Pharmacies are forbidden access to routine information collected by the Department of Health's Prescription Drug Monitoring Program. This data is currently available only to practitioners, the Department of Health, Medicaid, the Insurance Department and law enforcement pursuant to a judicial subpoena. This information is treated with the most serious care and respect for personal privacy.
Justification
On October 26th, 2009, Zachary Crotty, 19, of Colden, New York, died from a drug overdose fueled by a combination of the prescription drugs Suboxone, Xanax, Keppra and Remeron. These drugs were legally obtained, legally purchased, legally sold, and legally ingested. But they proved lethally reactive.
The pharmacies filling Zachary's prescriptions did not know his medical history- his doctor visits, his personal struggles with addiction, and his history of drug abuse. When they signed over his last prescriptions, they did not even know about the other drugs he was taking. What could've been prevented wasn't, simply because pharmacies did not have legal access to this critical information.
This bill opens New York's Prescription Drug Monitoring Program records to pharmacies, in the same way that physicians already have access to them. Within a matter of minutes, while patients wait to have their medicine handed to them, pharmacists can learn a patient's immediate medical history- including doctor and pharmacy visits, prescription history, and any suspicions of drug misuse, abuse or diversion. In a case like Zachary's, this information could have proved lifesaving.
Other states have opened this information to pharmacies years ago. And they have done so without sacrificing patient safety, privacy or access to prescription drugs. Kentucky, a national leader in prescription drug monitoring, has studied healthcare provider satisfaction with access to such information, and found overwhelming approval. These providers agreed that this recent medical history and prescription drug records provided for informed, safe and responsible decisions for their patients.
New York's laws and regulations in regard to the sharing of this information have, unfortunately, fallen behind those of other states. Our pharmacies want to be part of the solution when it comes to combating prescription drug fraud- and this legislation gives them the ability to do so.
This bill, if passed into law, would enable all of the parties involved in an individual patient's healthcare decisions to have information necessary to make the right prescription drug choices.
Legislative history
New Bill.
Fiscal implications
Minimal administrative costs.
Local fiscal implications
None.
Effective date
This Act shall take effect immediately.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.