Missouri could be on its way to implementing a statewide prescription drug monitoring program, if the idea can gain approval in both houses of the state legislature.
Missouri is the only state …
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Missouri could be on its way to implementing a statewide prescription drug monitoring program, if the idea can gain approval in both houses of the state legislature.
Missouri is the only state in the U.S. without a statewide prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP). The systems are used to monitor and help prevent inappropriate distribution of opioids and drugs, which abusers sometimes obtain by “shopping” for multiple doctors and pharmacies to fill extra prescriptions.
A bill passed by the Missouri Senate earlier this month would establish a database where doctors and pharmacies could share patient prescription information. That way, if someone comes to a doctor asking for painkillers, the provider can check what prescriptions they’ve already received to prevent pill shopping.
The PDMP bill would allow prescription information to be shared among health care providers, but specifically forbids that information from being given to law enforcement, prosecutors or regulators. It also could not be used to prevent someone from owning a firearm or as the cause for a criminal warrant.
The PDMP bill passed the Senate 20-12. Sen. Jeanie Riddle, whose district includes Warren County, was absent for the vote. Riddle’s office also has not returned a request for comment.
The bill now has to make its way through Missouri’s House before the legislative session closes at the end of May.
House Rep. Jeff Porter, whose district includes Montgomery County and much of Warren County, said he has mixed thoughts about the PDMP proposal. This isn’t the first time the House has considered a PDMP bill, which Porter said he voted in favor of in 2019. Based on his experience in the insurance industry, Porter said he is comfortable with patients’ private information being shared securely.
However, when PDMP came up again in 2020, Poter said he voted against it due to the cost of the program.
“It seemed like a lot of money at a time of a pandemic that we didn’t need to be spending,” Porter explained.
Porter said he’s skeptical that the PDMP bill will get pushed through the House before the end of the session. For the past eight years, former Rep. Holly Rehder of Sikeston got the PDMP bill passed in the House, only to have it fail in the Missouri Senate.
This year, Rehder was elected to the Senate and got PDMP passed there. Ironically, Porter said the proposal now lacks a strong champion to get it moved through the House, meaning the bill might still die of inaction.
Rep. Richard West, who represents Wright City and Wentzville, said if it comes to a vote he’ll almost certainly oppose PDMP.
“I don’t like us to be registered (on a list) through the government,” West said, commenting that private health care providers can already maintain their own internal or shared databases.
West said he and other Republicans are also nervous about creating registries that could later be used by another agency or the federal government as a basis for gun restrictions.
“I’m for less government, and to me this is more government,” West said.
