The State of Missouri has passed legislation establishing their State PMP (prescription drug monitoring program) to track controlled substances that have been prescribed to patients throughout the State in an effort to curb Opioid overdoses. Missouri is the final state in the US to establish a PMP. St. Louis County, along with 75 additional Jurisdictions had previously established its own PMP which now covers 85% of the State population but is not sanctioned by the State. This County-run PMP also recently signed an agreement to share data with 18 other States.[1] The St. Louis County PMP will now likely be absorbed into the State program once it becomes active.
Legislation to establish a State-wide PMP had been presented annually since 2005, but stalled or was dismissed at various stages of the legislative processes. Senator Holly Rehder has filed Missouri’s PMP legislation for nine consecutive years.[2]
Missouri Senate Bill 63 is the 2021 legislation that has become law establishing the PMP. The Act was signed into law by Missouri Governor Mike Parson on June 8th, 2021. Governor Parson said. “SB 63 will help provide necessary information to health care professionals and empower them to make decisions that better serve their patients and assist in fighting the opioid epidemic in Missouri.” The Act establishes the Joint Oversight Task Force for Prescription Drug Monitoring which will supervise and regulate the collection and use of patient dispensation information. The task force is to contractually enter an agreement with a vendor to operate the program. The St. Louis County PMP currently utilizes Appriss Health as their vendor. The Task Force will also enforce fines that the legislation establishes for dispensers that fail to report controlled substance dispensings.
The legislation goes on to set specifications for data that must be included in the PMP entries by dispensers within 24 hours of dispensing the medication. Beginning January 1st, 2023, the State is expected to begin phasing in real-time reporting to the PMP, with a mandate for real-time reporting required by January 1st, 2024.
MDToolbox makes checking most State PMP databases convenient with our PMP Integration. This allows prescribers to pull a patient specific PMP report directly from the prescription writer, drastically reducing the steps required to check the database. Prescribers save time by not having to navigate to another website, login, search for a patient and pull up the report. See our recent blog post on the benefits of integrating your State’s PMP.
While some studies have not found a clinically significant reduction in Opioid prescribing rates due directly to PMP usage, certain specific PMP features have been shown to reduce Opioid related Emergency Department visits. According to a study produced by the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project[3], States that have implemented mandatory PMP usage have shown a 6% reduction in the growth of ED visits for Opioid overdoses over States that did not require PMP usage. Studies such as this demonstrate that with proper utilization, PMPs can be a powerful tool for reducing Opioid Overdoses.
MDToolbox applauds the State of Missouri for passing legislation to create their PMP and join the rest of the country in further attempting to remedy the Opioid Crisis. We continually encouraging providers to take full advantage of the time and stress saving technologies we provide including Electronic Prescribing of Controlled Substances (EPCS), Electronic Prior Authorization (e-PA) and Real-time Price Transparency as they are important tools to use in fighting the devastating opioid epidemic and making electronic prescribing as convenient as possible for prescribers. Contact us for more information on about electronic prescribing and setting up a PMP Integration.
[1] https://pdmp-stlcogis.hub.arcgis.com/
[2] https://themissouritimes.com/missouri-legislature-gives-final-approval-to-statewide-pdmp-bill/
[3] https://hcup-us.ahrq.gov/reports/PDMPsAndOpioidHospitalizations.pdf