According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Buckeye State Sheriffs' Association is working with the Ohio State Board of Pharmacy to write a law requiring doctors, nurses, dentists and others who write prescriptions for narcotic pain killers to consult a database. This is meant to prevent patient drug abuse.
According to the paper, Ohio would be the second state after Nevada to have this requirement.
However, doctor groups are expected to oppose this law because it adds another requirement.
Jeff Smith, director of government relations at the Ohio State Medical Association, said the group would likely oppose any mandate on doctors forcing them to check a database for prescriptions.
"We're not ready to agree to that kind of administrative burden on the Ohio physicians," Smith said, adding that it would hit doctors at a time when they are seeing more patients and implementing their own electronic medical records.
Doctors receive training on what to look for and how to evaluate potential patients who are doctor shopping for dangerous pain medications, Smith said.
However, he said, the statewide doctor's association is willing to work with the pharmacy board to understand why physicians aren't already voluntarily participating.
What are your thoughts on this? It often is the pharmacist who is required to verify that patients are not doctor shopping and abusing prescriptions. This bill attacks the problem from another angle. Is it more effective this way or through pharmacies?
