Prescription Monitoring Programs

What are prescription monitoring programs?

Preventing diversion and abuse of prescription controlled substances while ensuring their availability for legitimate medical use is an important public health goal. To be balanced, efforts to prevent diversion of controlled substances should not interfere with their use in the treatment of pain. There are a number of types of information that can be used to identify sources of diversion, including law enforcement intelligence, pharmacy theft data, retail distribution of controlled substances, Medicaid and prescription monitoring programs (PMPs).

Twenty-seven states have adopted PMPs to monitor the prescribing of certain controlled substances and detect illicit prescribing and dispensing. Typically, PMPs collect prescribing and dispensing data from pharmacies, conduct review and analysis of the data, and make it available under certain circumstances to regulatory and law enforcement agencies, as well as practitioners. Further information about the status and trends of PMPs is available below.

August 8, 2006:

According to a recent review performed by the Pain & Policy Studies Group (PPSG), 27 states (Alabama, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming) have adopted laws establishing Prescription Monitoring Programs (PMPs). The purpose of PMPs is to monitor the prescribing of certain controlled substances to detect illicit prescribing and dispensing and identify patients who are obtaining prescriptions from multiple sources. All 27 PMPs rely on electronic transmission of data from pharmacies, although New York and Texas still require practitioners to obtain and use state-issued, serialized prescription forms in addition to the electronic component. Evidence indicates a continuing increase in the number of states with PMPs or that are considering PMP legislation.

The PPSG encourages research to evaluate the impact of PMPs on both access to medications for patients needing controlled substances for legitimate medical purposes and the incidence of drug abuse and diversion. Through these efforts, an accurate assessment of the success of PMPs in achieving a balanced approach can be made.

Trend in State Prescription Monitoring Programs, 1988-2006 (PDF) [Updated: August 2006]

Current Status of Precription Monitoring Programs (PDF) [Updated: August 2006]

Read the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management article, "Pain Management and Prescription Monitoring."

The American Alliance of Cancer Pain Initiatives Statement on State Prescription Monitoring Programs, June 2002

Using Medicaid data to identify prescription drug diversion

(1) United States General Accounting Office. Prescription drug monitoring: States can readily identify illegal sales and use of controlled substances. Washington, DC: United States General Accounting Office, GAO/HRD-92-115; 1992.

(2) United States General Accounting Office. Prescription drugs: State monitoring programs provide useful tool to reduce diversion. Washington, DC: United States General Accounting Office, GAO-02-634; 2002.

(3) United States General Accounting Office. Prescription drugs: State monitoring programs may help to reduce illegal diversion. Washington, DC: United States General Accounting Office, GAO-04-524T; 2004.

last updated:
August 8, 2006