The CURES For What Ails You

Speaking of prescription drugs, almost every state now has a prescription-drug monitoring program (or PDMP). The goal is to curb prescription-drug abuse by discouraging pill-pushing and doctor-shopping. Whether you’re a patient or provider, you should pay attention because law enforcement and licensing boards are watching.

In California, for example, the program is called CURES: the Controlled Substance Utilization Review and Evaluation System. By law, pharmacies must report to CURES every prescription for a Schedule II, III, or IV drug within seven days of dispensing it. And pretty soon, under a law passed last year, doctors will be required to check CURES before prescribing such drugs to a patient for the first time and every four months after that during treatment.

Last week, the California Supreme Court ruled that the California Medical Board could freely access CURES at any time. It didn’t need to get a warrant or show good cause beforehand. The doctor who was being investigated argued that this violated the privacy of his patients. But the Court held that, on balance, the Board’s access was justified by the need to protect the public from drug abuse and protect patients from impaired or negligent doctors.

Even if your state’s law is different, remember that federal law remains supreme. Last month, a federal court decided a case in which the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) subpoenaed data from Oregon’s PDMP. Unlike California’s program, Oregon required all agencies—even federal ones—to get a court order before it would respond to a subpoena. It sued to compel the DEA to comply with its law, but it lost. Federal law authorizes the DEA to issue subpoenas on its own, so Oregon couldn’t force it to follow state law.