Pubdate: Tue, 30 Sep 2003 Source: Lexington Herald-Leader (KY) Copyright: 2003 Lexington Herald-Leader Contact: http://www.kentucky.com/mld/heraldleader/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/240 Author: Charles B. Camp MEDICAL DATABASE WOULD BE WATCHED Bill's Purpose Closer Eye On Prescriptions FRANKFORT - Health cabinet officials would be required to scour Kentucky's prescription-drug database for patterns of pill abuse and report them to regulators, law enforcement, and in some cases the public, under a proposed bill approved yesterday by a legislative task force. But, in contrast to earlier proposals, the final draft, if approved by the 2004 General Assembly, wouldn't permit such statistical studies to target specific doctors, pharmacists or patients for investigation. In early September, when the task force set its objectives for the bill, it left open the possibility of using the database to identify "high-risk" physicians and patients by comparing their prescription-drug histories with benchmark numbers. Using those yardsticks, health officials could have referred names of people falling outside the norm to regulators or to law enforcement for further inquiry. The 2003 General Assembly created the Prescription Drug Abuse Task Force to explore new ways of using the Kentucky All Schedule Prescription Electronic Reporting System, or KASPER, to fight illicit pill use. It required the group to present proposed legislation to the next session. KASPER contains 35 million records of prescriptions for pain pills and other addictive drugs, going back to 1999. It is used by law officers and regulators to investigate drug cases, and by doctors and pharmacists to monitor patients. Though the task force's proposed bill wouldn't authorize the use of KASPER to pinpoint suspect individuals, it would still greatly broaden the scope of the database, which operates under strict privacy and limited-access rules. Misuse of that data could be punished as a felony. Among other things, the measure would: . Require health cabinet officials who now operate KASPER to run statistical analyses to discover pockets or local areas of suspected abuse, saving regulators and law officers time and work. The cabinet would be required to run some studies quarterly and make them public. Others could be created at the request of law officers or regulatory bodies, and would remain secret. . Permit law officers from different agencies working on the same case to share reports. Currently, strict privacy rules force each officer to seek a separate report for the same information. It also would allow sharing with law enforcement in states that have similar systems. . Extend the reach of the Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure, by allowing it to automatically expand an investigation of one doctor to other physicians in the same office or community if a pattern of illegal activity is suspected. . Speed up the reporting of data from pharmacies from twice monthly to weekly, and impose tougher standards on accuracy. The proposed bill won praise from some lawmakers and regulators. "It has an excellent chance of passage," possibly without change by lawmakers, House Majority Leader Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, co-chairman of the task force, said after yesterday's meeting. He acknowledged the new statistical studies might require some additional personnel, but predicted the cost would be low and the money would be approved. Dr. Danny Clark, president of the Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure, said the measure would help find nests of doctors and "doctor-shoppers" who feed pain pills and other dangerous narcotics into a specific region. "The sooner we can find people who are doing the wrong thing, the sooner we can do something about it," Clark said. However, the expansion of access to KASPER data drew some criticism. Task force member Jerry Cox, a Mount Vernon defense lawyer who expressed civil rights concerns earlier, filed a statement warning that the current process granting access to private medical records might violate Fourth Amendment protections against illegal searches. He recommended that, to obtain a KASPER record, law officers be required to show "probable cause," as is required for a search warrant. The task force voted to include his statement in its minutes -- but not the report to the General Assembly. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth +++++++