Doctors: Opioid mandate onerous

New state law cuts time, funds

When Dr. Pamela Trout, a pediatrician and a solo practitioner, heard about the state’s new opioid law, she didn’t worry because she rarely prescribes opioids.

But then she learned the law, which went into effect July 1, covers more than just opioids.

Almost all medications that are classified as Schedule II through V drugs, including steroids; antiseizure medications; stimulants like Adderall, Ritalin and ADHD medications; Ambien and Xanax are included in the law.

The Controlled Substances law doesn’t put a limit on the prescription of nonopioid drugs.

But it adds a new requirement for doctors to check a statewide database when prescribing from a list of more than 100 scheduled drugs before putting a pen to the prescription pad.

And while many doctors agree that the law is a step in the right direction to reduce the availability of opioids, they also find its mandates

onerous and time-consuming.

“The number of patients that I see that are on ADHD medications that I refill every day is crazy,” said Trout, of Orlando. “It is more regulation and more consequences for something that we already did pretty smoothly. It just adds to the work for the day, and I don’t think it’s necessary for my patients.”

Florida is now one of two dozen states to have passed legislation related to prescription of opioids. It’s part of a nationwide effort to curb the opioid epidemic that’s killing more than 115 people each day.

The laws vary from state to state. In Florida, it places a three- and sevenday limit on the prescription of opioids for acute pain. It also requires that health providers check the state’s prescription drug monitoring program before writing a new prescription for most controlled substances for patients who are 16 and older.

Called E-FORCSE, Florida’s prescription drug database was created by the Legislature in 2009 to encourage safer prescribing of controlled substances. The database collects and stores scheduled drug prescriptions, which are mainly dispensed by pharmacists. The database can help providers identify patients who are “doctor shopping.”

Under the new law, providers who fail to check the database can suffer penalties, including a disciplinary action against their licenses.

Local health systems have launched massive education campaigns for their staff and patients about the new law, emphasizing mostly limitations on opioid prescriptions, to prepare the patients for what they should expect when they see their doctors.

On Aug. 6, the state Department of Health made live Take Control, an educational website to educate the public about the new law.

“The department is committed to working with patients and the health-care community to clear up any possible confusion about the new law to ensure that patients are able to obtain and fill necessary prescriptions for pain medication,” Dr. Celeste Philip, State Surgeon General and Secretary, said in a news release.

More than a month after the law went into effect, Dr. Benjamin Kaplan, an internal medicine doctor in Orlando, calculated the financial cost of the legislation in his practice.

“You should be very careful when prescribing opioids. I get it and I know that,” he said. “But making a blanket statement affecting all physicians in the state of Florida, that’s a big deal without really knowing the true validity of that decision.”