Wholesale drug distribution companies will have to revamp their recordkeeping to keep up with new state reporting standards. Ohio’s pharmacy board plans to roll out an enhanced monitoring system to track suspicious activities, in hopes of cracking down on opioid addiction.
The new guidelines would create a uniform, web-based tool for wholesalers to report suspicious orders of drugs, which can come from pharmacies, doctors and clinics. These are just the latest in a series of guidelines from Gov. John Kasich’s administration to regulate the flow of drugs to patients.
Kasich points out that fatal prescription drug overdoses are down, although there’s been a rise in fatal overdoses with illegal drugs.
“The deaths are tragic no matter who we’re talking about but we have the most amount of leverage over these things as opposed to some drug dealer out there selling laced cocaine with fentanyl.”
Kasich says the more data the state has on the flow of drugs, the easier it is to pinpoint factors contributing to the opioid epidemic.
Here are some of the changes distributors would have to follow:
- Report orders for more than 5,000 unit doses;
- Report disproportionate mixes of controlled and other substances;
- Report purchasers not taking insurance
- Report unusual timing and methods of delivery and payment.
The rules also would require distributors to know more about their customers, and to delay suspicious orders.
