Data on Rx monitoring program not easy to come by.

Byline: Susan Spencer

The state Department of Public Health missed a deadline last week to report to the Legislature on how its prescription monitoring program is being used to reduce doctor shopping, pill mills and other signs of prescription painkiller abuse.

While some in political circles allowed for an informal grace period as the administration was in transition between former Gov. Deval L. Patrick and Gov. Charles D. Baker, the failure to report as mandated in the substance-abuse law signed last August follows a history of foot dragging on releasing information about the prescription database.

"I feel very strongly that we have to have transparency on this,'' State Sen. Harriette L. Chandler, D-Worcester, said. "We're not talking about the moon. If they are unable to do that, then what are they able to do?''

Scott Zoback, acting communications director for DPH, said in an email: "The PMP plays a critical role in addressing prescription drug diversion and informing clinical decision making through prescription data. The report is being compiled for the Legislature.''

The state has had since 1992 a prescription monitoring program for drugs susceptible to abuse. This database of prescriptions written and dispensed covers drugs under federal schedules II through V, which includes everything from oxycodone/OxyContin to Ritalin, to cough medicine with codeine.

Pharmacists submit prescription data to the state weekly.

Physicians, dentists and other prescribers must check the prescription database before issuing to a patient, for the first time, a prescription for a narcotic drug in controlled substances schedule II, such as Percocet, or schedule III, such as Vicodin. DPH also can require prescribers to check for other commonly abused or addictive drugs in schedules IV and V, including Klonopin and Robitussin AC.

The system had originally been voluntary.

In 2012, all prescribers were required to be automatically enrolled in the monitoring program as their licenses came up for renewal. By the end of 2015, 100 percent of prescribers are expected to be enrolled.

Last April, the DPH rejected a request from the Telegram & Gazette under the state's Public Records Law for numbers of prescribers over the last 10 years flagged for suspicious patterns, by community of patient and prescriber, and records of alerts sent to prescribers and pharmacies in those areas. The agency cited regulatory language that "data in the system is not a public record,''...