Abuse and diversion of opioid painkillers such as OxyContin, Percocet, and Vicodin have become a lethal scourge, surpassing vehicle crashes as a cause of accidental deaths in many states, studies show. About 14,800 overdose deaths in 2008 involved prescription painkillers, more than cocaine and heroin combined, according to federal data.
Recognizing that health-care providers play a crucial role in this problem, 36 states - and counting - have developed prescription monitoring programs that doctors can check before writing orders for addictive painkillers.
In Pennsylvania - which has one of the nation's highest rates of drug-overdose deaths - a database with information entered by pharmacists already exists, but only law enforcement officials may use it.
That could change. On Tuesday, the state House of Representatives' Human Services Committee voted 19-1 to support a bill that would make the database more comprehensive and timely, and let physicians access it. A vote in the full House is expected early in the new year.
"We've been working on this for two years," said the sponsor, Rep. Gene DiGirolamo (R., Bucks). "So many people have a stake in it. We think we finally have a bill that everyone can support."
Pharmacists have worried about the burden of reporting, while some doctors have feared that the widespread underprescribing of adequate pain medications could be worsened by a monitoring program.
The two-year-old Pennsylvania Pain Coalition, an advocacy group comprising health professionals, helped craft the bill.
"It has excellent provisions to protect patient privacy," said coalition chair Michael Ashburn, a pain and palliative-care specialist at Penn. "It strikes a good balance between the pharmacy industry and doctors. This bill should save lives."
New Jersey this year awarded a contract to establish a prescription-drug monitoring program that doctors will be able to access.
