Senate considers requiring prescription database checks to combat opioid abuse

The Senate Finance Committee has been weighing a wide-ranging bill to overhaul Medicaid in Alaska, and one provision is aimed at curbing the abuse of opioid drugs.

Senate Bill 74 would require doctors check a database before prescribing opioids. The sponsors want to make sure patients aren’t going from doctor to doctor seeking pills.

The bill would also require pharmacists to check the Alaska Prescription Database Monitoring Program.

Soldotna Republican Sen. Peter Micciche said he became interested in the prescription database when many of his constituents were burglarized. The culprits had addictions.

Sen. Pete Micciche chairs a Senate Finance Health and Social Services Subcommittee during discussions about the close-out of that department’s budget, March 4, 2016. (Photo by Skip Gray/360 North)
Sen. Pete Micciche chairs a subcommittee meeting on the Department of Health and Social Services budget on Friday. (Photo by Skip Gray/360 North)

He attended court-ordered group therapy sessions so he could better understand the issue.

“These were folks that in some cases, had a very successful path through life, like mine or any other Alaskan, that was diverted to a very unsuccessful path,” Micciche said.

Eagle River Republican Sen. Anna MacKinnon supports making doctors check the database.

“Someone is providing access to a variety of opioids – and then when they can’t get the prescription any longer, they’re turning to heroin, and young men, older women, female, male, are losing their lives,” MacKinnon said.

But the proposal has drawn concern from doctors groups. While the Alaska State Medical Association supports doctors using the database, it doesn’t support requiring it for every controlled drug.

Association leaders say removing doctors’ discretion would create an unnecessary burden and increase costs.

Emergency doctors have voiced concerns. Dr. Carlton Heine of Juneau said he agrees with 90 percent of what the legislators want to do.

But he said doctors aren’t solely to blame. He noted that beginning in the 1990s, organizations that accredit hospitals – and federal programs that pay doctors – encouraged doctors to prescribe more pain meds.

“It’s not that we’re trying to do it to create addicts,” Heine said. “There are other situations that are pressuring the behavior that you’re seeing. I do think we need to find some way to identify the providers that are over-prescribing. I think that is a problem, and I get frustrated with that personally, when I see patients coming in, knowing who their provider might be.”

The committee made changes to address some of the doctors’ concerns. It provided exemptions from checking the database to doctors whose patients are in emergencies and inpatient settings, and on the day of surgeries.

The Senate Finance Committee could vote on the bill as soon as Monday.

Andrew Kitchenman

State Government Reporter, Alaska Public Media & KTOO

State government plays an outsized role in the life of Alaskans. As the state continues to go through the painful process of deciding what its priorities are, I bring Alaskans to the scene of a government in transition.

Sign up for The Signal

Top Alaska stories delivered to your inbox every week

Site notifications
Update notification options
Subscribe to notifications