Nevada News: Task Force Issues

October 1, 2009 12:26 pm

Reprinted from the October 2009 Nevada State Board of Pharmacy Newsletter.

Two bothersome issues with potential detrimental consequences need your attention. The first has to do with the fact than many of you have been using a bogus Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) number for a prescriber simply to get the prescription adjudicated by the insurance company, not realizing that you are adding that prescription to the profile of the holder of that bogus DEA number, as well as adding that physician to the patient’s profile within the task force. The result of this activity is an angry physician being questioned for prescribing for someone he or she has never seen (or even knows) and an angry patient who may be falsely accused of “doctor shopping.” You must use the correct DEA number of the practitioner actually prescribing the medication.

The second issue has surfaced with the untimely death of a highly popular entertainer in Las Vegas. The task force has identified several practitioners and pharmacies attempting to access the drug profile of the entertainer, even though he or she was never a patient of either the practitioner or the pharmacy. This is clearly an attempt at inappropriate use of task force information and will be dealt with accordingly. By law, you may access the profiles of your patients only.