MHS Heat Map, Courtesy of www.health.mil
Florida’s Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) is now sharing prescription drug data with the nation’s Military Health System (MHS) PDMP, thanks to a new law that went into effect on July 1, 2019.
The Military Health System participates in state PDMPs by reporting information related to Schedule II-V medications dispensed to military members and their dependents, but has been unable to share certain information due to challenges with differing data reporting requirements in each state. Now, through cooperation with health systems integrator Appriss Health and the Florida legislature, those challenges have been met in Florida.
Florida legislators Rep. Cary Pigman R-55 and Sen. Ben Albritton R-26 co-sponsored Florida House Bill-375, which made the change to the PDMP statutes to authorize the Florida Department of Health to share PDMP data with the MHS.
“Florida has the fifth largest population of active and reserve members of the military in the nation, currently numbering more than 92,000,” said Pigman, an emergency medicine physician, a physician in the Army Reserve and vice chairman of the House of Representatives Health & Human Services Committee. “With more than 100,000 healthcare providers in Florida using E-FORCSE, the ability to search the Military Health System PDMP will help protect and save more lives.”
With the addition of Florida, the MHS PDMP is now sharing critical PDMP data and analytics with 39 PDMPs throughout the United States and U.S. territories. Additionally, E-FORCSE currently shares PDMP data across state lines with 17 PDMPs.
For more details, see the full press release.