Do they black list people who doctor shop so they can never get Rx's again?

Answer 1

“Doctor shopping” by drug addicts is one of the most common ways that addicts get illegal controlled substances. Generally, this term refers to the visit by an individual—who may or may not have legitimate medical needs—to several doctors, each of whom writes a prescription for a controlled substance. The individual will visit several pharmacies, receiving more of the drug than intended by any single physician, typically for the purpose of feeding an addiction.

Associated illegal activities may include the forgery of prescriptions, or the sale or transfer of the drug to others. Unfortunately, in many states, physicians and pharmacists have not been able to automatically cross-check multiple prescriptions given to the same patient.

To address this problem, Congress first appropriated funds to the Department of Justice in 2003 to promote the deployment of Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs (PDMPs) by States. That commitment continues as part of the Administration’s National Drug Control Strategy for 2006. PDMPs help cut down on prescription fraud and doctor shopping by giving physicians and pharmacists more complete information about a patient’s prescriptions for controlled substances.

While the specifics of these programs vary from state to state, they generally share the characteristic of allowing prescribers (for example, a physician) and dispensers (for example, a pharmacist) to input and receive accurate and timely controlled substance prescription history information while ensuring patient access to needed treatment. Most states also have some mechanism for law enforcement to receive this information in cases where criminal activity is suspected. Some states also allow health care providers to use this information as a tool for the early identification of patients at risk for addiction in order to initiate appropriate medical interventions. In other states the justice system can use this information to assist in the enforcement of laws controlling the sale and use of controlled substance prescription medication.

The PDMP program has steadily expanded through the Harold Rogers Prescription Drug Monitoring Program, with a total of 33 states with active or planned PDMPs as of July 1, 2006. These grants can be used to implement or enhance PDMPs at the state level. The Administration plans to continue its work with states that have PDMPs to obtain better data as to the extent and nature of the controlled substance prescription drug abuse threat, to encourage the expansion of the PDMP program nationwide, and to share best practices information with states that already have PDMPs (e.g., on cost effectiveness, the benefits to monitoring all scheduled controlled substances, and measuring performance).