The problem here is at least twofold:
First, there are many individuals who attempt to scam narcotics from physicians either for personal abuse or to sell to our grandchildren. They are VERY clever, experienced, and can be quite convincing. I've dealt with them for 35 years, some have even had fake medical records and worked as a group of 6 or more. When I've contacted the DEA, the agent was aware of them, but felt powerless to do anything----every time he arrested them they were out before his paperwork was done. This obviously hurts the legitimate patients who have a need for chronic pain meds by making the physicians and pharmacists very wary.
Second, and maybe more important at this point is the state and federal agencies that are addressing the problem in their typical manner----draconian over-regulation. The rules vary by state, and now seem to change every month. In general, schedule II narcotics cannot be filled on an out of state prescription, so the best strategy is to have a local prescriber, one who knows the rules of Florida. In NY, the procedure to write a narcotic is now as follows:
First, the doctor must register with NYS Dept of Health website for online access to prescription records after a 3 stage process and "appropriate" fees. For each scheduled drug, II THRU IV, I must enter the patients name and DOB to get a reference # for that prescription, and then write that number on the RX. I must also document, in their medical record, that I accessed the website and there was no indication of multiple prescribers or abuse. The RX must be written and signed in original black ink, and given to the patient or authorized representative who needs photo ID to pick it up. Then the pharmacist gets it and has to repeat the whole website and identification process over again. The penalties for non-compliance are ridiculous up to forfeiture of license. This is being done by 30,000 NYS providers, and then the pharmacists, for say an average of 10 Rx's each per week, takes 3-5 min, so this looks like 25,000 man-hours/week statewide that could be better spent on patient care. Meanwhile, all the state had to do, since we are only accessing THEIR records would be to run a monthly report of everyone who received more than the prescribed amount or had multiple narcotic prescribers and distribute the list to the local Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement agents. Probably 5 min per month of CPU time. But, as you see from the first paragraph, even if you do catch and report someone, nothing happens anyway.
Why are they doing this? They probably don't know any better. NYS health Dept is run by politicians, not physicians, and they have no idea of how the real world works or the impact of their idiotic regulations. They simply believe big government can do it better
I have historically objected to pharmacists being able to make clinical judgments and refuse to fill legitimate prescriptions---just take the pills out of the big bottle, put them in the little bottle and give them to the patient, the rest is really my responsibility. But now they are subject to the same draconian regulation so I can't blame them either
As a result, chronic pain patients are caught in the middle, and even worse if they split their time between 2 states. A few bad apples ruin it for the rest, as usual
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