Staff Report with Final Results: Texas State Board of Pharmacy Page: 15
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Sunset Advisory Commission June 2017
and while the Department of Public Safety provides information about Texas
prescribing or dispensing activity upon request, the department has not
proactively published such information. State law currently requires a work
group of regulatory and law enforcement agencies involved in monitoring
controlled substances to submit a biennial report to the Legislature but
does not require publication of any data or analysis of dispensing trends.32
Providing better access to this information would help the Legislature,
pharmacists, prescribers, and the public stay informed about the prescription
drug abuse problem.
The important role of prescribers to the future success of
Texas' Prescription Monitoring Program should continue to be
evaluated as part of the upcoming Sunset review of the Texas
Medical Board.
While the role of prescribers is a critical part of monitoring prescription drug
abuse, this report does not make recommendations to change requirements
on prescribers related to the Prescription Monitoring Program. Instead, this
report focuses narrowly on the role of the pharmacy board to operate the
program and its authority over the pharmacies and pharmacists it regulates.Best practices
for prescribers
should be
considered in the
context of the
Medical Board's
authority over
pain clinics and
prescribers.However, the review identified additional best practices relating to prescriber
use of the program that will be further evaluated as part of the upcoming
Sunset review of the Texas Medical Board, scheduled for completion in fall
2016. For example, Texas statute authorizes prescribers to register with the
program and search the database before prescribing controlled substances but
only requires prescribers working in pain management clinics to search the
information before writing high-risk prescriptions. This and other potential
best practices related to prescribers are best considered in the full context of
the Medical Board's authority over pain clinics and prescribers overall.
Recommendations
Change in Statute
1.1 Beginning in 2018, require pharmacists to search the Prescription Monitoring
Program database before dispensing certain controlled substances.
Statute would require pharmacists to search the database and review a patient's prescription history before
dispensing opioids, benzodiazepines, barbiturates, or carisoprodol, in line with drugs already identified in
the Medical Practice Act as carrying the highest risk of abuse. Statute would also authorize the board
to define any additional "red flag" circumstances in which pharmacists must search the database before
dispensing controlled substances. Requiring pharmacists to search before dispensing the most addictive
controlled substances would increase usage and efficiency of the system, and would help pharmacists
meet their corresponding responsibility to dispense only valid prescriptions.
This recommendation would not go into effect until January 1, 2018, to allow the board to finish
transitioning the program and to give pharmacists time to adjust their practices to the new requirements.
Texas State Board of Pharmacy Staff Report with Final Results
Issue 115
Sunset Advisory Commission
June 2017
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Ogle, Steven; Schiff, Tamara; Hartley, Cee & Teleki, Katharine. Staff Report with Final Results: Texas State Board of Pharmacy, report, June 2017; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1033475/m1/39/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.