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Ohio News: Pharmacy Board E-Mail Blast
Published in the May 2009 Ohio State Board of Pharmacy Newsletter
In March, we sent out a request for information and a warning about the newest drug scam involving prescriptions issued by Florida doctors for Ohio individuals. We sent an e-mail to every pharmacist listed as a subscriber to OARRS and then we followed that with the same e-mail that went out to almost 14,000 Ohio pharmacists whose e-mail addresses we had in our licensing system. For those of you who received both, we apologize for the duplication. However, the response was extraordinary. We received over 300 telephone calls and faxes over the first three-day period from pharmacists who had seen these prescriptions, several of whom had the person standing at the pharmacy counter at the time. On further checking, many of those individuals had criminal records for drug-related activities, making it clear that the majority of these prescriptions were not issued for a legitimate medical purpose. In addition, we heard from pharmacists in the surrounding states as well as pharmacists in states between Ohio and Florida. Many pharmacists thanked us for notifying them of this new scheme and were more than willing to assist us in bringing it to a halt. At the time of the writing of this Newsletter, both the number of individuals visiting Ohio pharmacies with these questionable prescriptions and the number of telephone calls to the Board have decreased. Hopefully, by the time this Newsletter arrives, this scheme will have been greatly slowed down, if not stopped completely.
Once again, however, this points out the need for pharmacists to exercise diligence as they fill prescriptions. Pharmacists are required to use judgment every time a prescription is presented for filling. The pharmacist must determine, to the best of his or her knowledge and experience, whether or not the prescription was issued for a legitimate medical purpose. When the patient-prescriber-pharmacy relationships are separated by multiple states, the pharmacist should certainly question the validity and do more than just call the physician to verify the prescription. As we stated in our e-mail, it is hard to understand how a patient who is supposedly in severe pain (after all, they received a prescription for 180 or 240 doses of 30 mg extended-release oxycodone on the first visit) can tolerate an automobile trip to Florida and back, particularly when it is well known that Ohio and the states around us have excellent pain physicians. In addition, while not mandated, one of the best ways to assist in making the determination of “legitimate medical use” is by accessing the OARRS database. Most pharmacists have the ability to access at least a limited number of Web sites at work. The Board’s Web site is one that is usually available. Those pharmacists who do use the OARRS system have told us how useful it is in their practice. If you are not signed up for OARRS, please do so. If your employer does not allow you to access OARRS, please continue to ask for it. We will continue to push them about it as well.
On a related note – This was the first time we ever tried to send out a large scale notice to pharmacists using e-mail. It was a tremendous success. Therefore, we will probably do that again when we have information we want to disseminate or gather. Please note: We will not (not) ever ask you to reply back via e-mail with any confidential information. If you ever get such a request, please let us know immediately. It is also important to not “unsubscribe” to the Board’s Listserv e-mail list and to keep an updated e-mail address on file with the Board. The next Ohio State Board Newsletter will be announced using this Listserv “e-mail blast” and will be available online. We are working towards eventually eliminating the costly printing and mailing of the paper Ohio State Board Newsletter. Until then, the Newsletter will continue to be distributed as it has been.
