Stuart Colburn, Esq., has done it again with his third installation on prescription drug abuse in America for the LexisNexis Communities on Workers Compensation. Part One explained “the problem”. Part Two identified stakeholders and his final blog offers solutions. You may read his complete blog here or take a look at this brief summary.
1. Government Regulation
“Prescription drug abuse and diversion is a problem requiring close interaction between public and private sectors. Stakeholders must work together using tools at their disposal in a coordinated effort to fight supply and demand,” Colburn wrote. He suggests a prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP) that would include:
– Scheduled and other highly abusive substances.
– Real time data transmission between stakeholders.
-A requirement for doctors to check the PDMP database before writing a prescription.
– A requirement for pharmacies to check the PDMP database before dispensing narcotics.
Integration with neighboring states.
2. Physicians
“The public has an unreasonable view of the knowledge base of healthcare providers. Although every doctor graduated from medical school, knowledge itself comes from specialized training,” he wrote, “Scheduled narcotics should only be prescribed by doctors with the requisite training and experience. Those doctors granted the additional license to prescribe scheduled narcotics would be subject to additional regulation.”
3. Pharmacies
“Pharmacies should be required to participate in a prescription drug monitoring program for scheduled narcotics before dispensing scheduled narcotics,” Colburn suggested.
4. Pharmaceutical Companies
“Drug companies should design drugs to deter abuse. Drug companies can employ manufacturing techniques, making it more difficult or impossible for drugs to be ground up into a powder,” he added.
5. Consumers
“Public education about prescription drug abuse should be paramount on billboards and in our school systems. Every day, 7,000 young people abuse prescription narcotics for the first time. Patients who receive a prescription or scheduled narcotics should also undergo approved education and information,” Colburn wrote.
6. Payers
“Payers should implement strategies designed to identify addicts, diverts and outliers. Payers should urge policy makers to adopt PDMP and common sense laws giving regulators the information and power necessary to fight PDA,” he wrote. “Payers have ever more increasingly sophisticated software able to perform advanced predictive modeling and performance analytics that can identify outlier doctors and possible addicts.”
© Copyright 2011 Stuart Colburn, Esq. Reprinted with permission.
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This information was provided by attorney Stuart Colburn, a Shareholder at Downs Stanford in Austin, Texas. Colburn has extensive experience in all phases of dispute resolution before the Texas Department of Insurance, Division of Workers Compensation and in district courts across the state. Stuart represents clients regarding workers compensation, non-subscription, subrogation, and bad faith litigation. He is the founder and the first chairman of the State Bar of Texas (SBOT) Workers Compensation Section; course coordinator for the SBOT the Advanced Workers Compensation Seminar; and course coordinator for the Texas Workers Compensation Forum. He can be reached at: scolburn@downsstanford.com
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