As of this month, according to First Coast News , the statewide database in place at doctor’s offices and pharmacies all over the Sunshine state. This new database is supposed to help stop the patients from doctor shopping and pill mills from being created in the state of Florida. At this time, the doctors and pharmacies are not required to look at the database, but lawmakers are trying to make it mandatory for both doctors and pharmacists to use the database before prescribing or filling the patients pain killers and antidepressants like Oxycontin or Xanax. Currently, there is already a law in place that prohibits doctors from dispensing pain killers from their own offices; instead they must go to a pharmacy which will have the person’s prescription history as well.
This new database is supposed to help spot those patients who are abusing the pain killers or those who are doctors shopping, by allowing technology to help doctors and Pharmacists see the patient’s prescription history. Hopefully, this will stop the Oxycotin Express which has been Florida’s nickname for several years now, since people come from other states to visit different doctors to get a prescription of Oxycodone or Hillbilly Heroin . According to USAToday , the Center for Disease Control and Prevention believe that the popular pain killers have become a national epidemic. Additionally, the CDC the normal street drugs like cocaine, heroin, and exstacy kill less people than the prescribed narcotics and antidepressants all over the United States.
T he State of Florida is cracking down by establishing this database and arresting those who are suspected of doctor shopping, in order to stop people from visiting different doctors and pharmacies. This new database will detour patients from doctor shopping, which is a problem Florida has faced for many years now and many other states have also tried to set up new laws to stop pill mills from moving to their state. With this new database doctors will be able to see if the patient has been prescribed narcotics or antidepressants by another doctor immediately. However, people who abuse the pain medicine make it hard on those that do need it and have true reason to take it like terminal cancer or diseases which require pain management.
Before this database was created, doctors made millions off of patients who came from different states to Florida. Patients would go from one doctor to another, as well as visiting different pharmacies in order to fill their different prescription. This type of doctor shopping and the amount of overdoses is what provoked the Florida Lawmakers to establish a new database that can monitor the patient’s attempts to fill more than one narcotic or antidepressant prescription a month. Hopefully, these new laws and database will stop this type of behavior in the Sunshine State, but some skeptics believe addicts will still find a way around the law. The Oxycontin Express is closed, but the database is not perfect and not all doctors or pharmacies will take a look at the patient’s history until it is mandatory.