PDMP do not work mailing because healthcare professionals (prescribers and Pharmacists) have no way of verifying who they are really dealing with… because they have not been granted access to some sort of on line official database to be able to validate a driver’s License or SSN.
There is a federal database for verifying SSN referred to as E-verify https://www.ssa.gov/employer/ssnv.htm
However… While the service is available to all employers and third-party submitters, it can only be used to verify current or former employees and only for wage reporting (Form W-2) purposes.
Then there is the various state’s BMV driver’s license database… BUT… no state will allow a healthcare professional access to this database to validate the person/driver’s license presented with a controlled substance prescription. I have been told that states BMV that have been ask to allow healthcare processionals access to this database.. have been denied as an invasion of privacy…
Keep in mind, that these healthcare professionals are in charge of all the private personal HIPAA health information, and all the healthcare professional has to do is be able to verify the driver’s license presented against the graphic of the driver’s license as it was presented to a person it was issued to.
All the healthcare professional really needs is the pic, DOB, name and weight/height from the database. If the pic and name on the driver’s license presented does match the driver’s license number on the one presented… why would a healthcare professional would prescribe or fill controlled substance for this person ?
The serious substance abuser/diverter will most likely have numerous fake ID’s allowing them to visit multiple prescribers and pharmacies every 30 days and will never show up on any PDMP report as being a doc/pharmacy shopper.
Filed under: General Problems
Oregon’s PDMP is full of mistakes. Pharmacies fail to report medications in the required timeframe, yet the Oregon Board of Pharmacy fails to take any action. Pharmacists are in a rush to get the prescriptions filled to make money for the company. A few years ago, a person submitted falsely printed and forged prescriptions to four local pharmacies. They clearly did not look like my typical prescriptions, handwriting was wrong, etc., yet 3 of the pharmacies filled them. The prescription wasn’t even for the person who dropped it off and picked it up! Yet of the four pharmacies, only one bothered to get a copy of the driver’s license. Just one look at it and I could tell it was a fake, yet that also didn’t stop the other pharmacies from filling THREE prescriptions illegally, just contributing to more pain medications on the streets because the pharmacists were in too much of a rush to make some money. Local police did little to investigate since most of the pharmacies didn’t even bother to have cameras at their counters.