Ohio using fingerprint scan to fight prescription drug abuse

The fight against painkiller abuse is going high-tech in southern Ohio, where local health officials are adopting biometric tools similar to those used by U.S. forces in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Starting this week, patients must submit to a fingerprint scan to see a doctor at one hospital system. At several pharmacies, patients must use fingerprint IDs to get their prescriptions filled.

The one-year pilot program, announced Thursday, was green-lighted in recent weeks by the state’s Republican Gov. John Kasich. If the technology works, fingerprint scans could become more commonplace in Ohio—a state where an average of 67 opioid painkillers are prescribed to every resident each year, state data show.

Sean Lane recalls how the military used fingerprint scanning at checkpoints to spot potentially dangerous people with real-time data when he was based in Afghanistan in 2007 as an Air Force intelligence officer. Now, Lane is the founder and chief technology officer of CrossChx LLC, based in his southern Ohio hometown of Gallipolis. CrossChx is providing the fingerprint devices and data-analytics muscle behind the pilot program.

Lane, a 31-year-old who was deployed five times to Afghanistan and Iraq from 2003 to 2008, owns more than a dozen intelligence companies and founded CrossChx earlier this year. He believes biometrics could help win southern Ohio’s battle against painkiller abuse.

“We kind of want to surge, like we did in Iraq, against this problem,” Lane tells the Health Blog. “In Ohio, we’re dealing with data silos, where people have data and they’re not sharing it. These are the same sharing issues we fought through in Iraq,” he says.

Using eye-scanning technology was also considered along with fingerprint scans, Lane says, but the idea was scrapped amid concerns it would make patients uncomfortable. “It’s a little too sci-fi,” Lane says.

The pilot program will be conducted at several pharmacies and Holzer Health System, a health-care provider with two hospitals in southern Ohio—a region with some of the nation’s highest levels of prescription-drug abuse. Holzer and CrossChx provided $900,000 for the pilot program. The state of Ohio pledged another $500,000.

Patient participation is voluntary and not all of the pharmacies or physician offices in southern Ohio have signed up.

So far, the pilot program has enrolled more than 100 members, with only a few declining to join, says Brent Saunders, Holzer’s chairman. After an initial four-tap set-up, future visits take seconds for a patient to check into the doctor’s office or verify their identity at the pharmacy. Any finger can be scanned.

The real-time data uploads to a patient’s electronic medical record. Such information — how many doctor’s-office visits, trips to the pharmacy, pills prescribed — is critical for helping health officials and law enforcement target diversion of drugs into the illegal market. The fingerprint biometrics could also help officials identify questionable doctors or suspect pharmacists.

“This is the first thing they’ve seen that has a chance to stop the prescription-drug problem and monitor where people are getting their prescriptions in real-time,” Holzer CEO T. Wayne Munro tells the Health Blog.

For years, states and federal officials have combated the nation’s growing painkiller problem by beefing up law enforcement units or adding prescription-drug-monitoring programs. But those tactics often focus on the widespread black market of opioid painkillers, which kicks into gear long after abusers or addicts have left the doctor’s office. Ohio’s own prescription-drug-monitoring program has a one-week lag in uploading its patient data, doctors and state officials say.

The Ohio program signals how the fight against prescription-drug abuse is becoming more individualized, at the patient level, and more pre-emptive, says Orman Hall, director of the state’s Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services.

“Currently, it’s all after the fact,” Hall tells the Health Blog. The pilot program “gives us better and more-timely information about people who are abusing,” he says.
source:
The Wall Street Journal

Sounds like a great idea to combat the problem of people getting multiple prescriptions from multiple doctors within the state of Ohio, but they will still cross over to other states to get what they need. I firmly believe that the answer to this problem lies in monitoring of physicians and I know that this program does that but only in Ohio. I can't see how it can really make an impact as the physicians will also head elsewhere. If our country doesn't start to attack this as a nationwide issue, not just state by state we will continue to fight the problem from the rear. There should be some type of monitoring for all scheduled drugs of abuse similar to the monitoring the FDA does of suboxone prescribers. After all suboxone is a schedule 3 drug but it is regulated much more closely than oxycodone (schedule 2), morphine( schedule 2) or hydrocodone(schedule 3). If we want to get ahead of the problem there needs to be stricter guidelines and more monitoring of pain killer prescriptions on a national level, and also better education of both the public in general and health care professionals about the dangers of these drugs in the wrong hands. Physicians who continually prescribe opiate pain killers that are diverted should have some level of accountability for the problem, as they are gaining greatly from unethical and often illegal prescriptions. Why not let them shoulder some of the burden of treating the problem they have helped to create by giving them stiff fines for unscrupulous prescribing practices and putting these fines into a trust fund to pay for addiction treatment and education. That way at least if they're going to profit from the prescribing at least there will be some danger that they may have to pay a price for it.

Monica,
That is a great idea, if a doctor is nailed for prescribing practices that go beyond the scope what he/she should be doing, yes they should be fined and that money put into a fund for substance abuse treatment. I also think that money confiscated from drug sales should also be put into a fund to help those who need it but cannot afford it.
One of the biggest barriers to treatment is funding. In my state it isn't so bad with medicaid being available to so many. We have a program for just about everyone but for other states it is horrible. In the state of Alabama, it is really bad. My daughter lives there and has medicaid but only because her son is disabled. It's a shame. Unless she pays cash she doesn't have access to good treatment or the kind of treatment that she should have.

You think of all the money that was put into the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program and know that even though in most states it is used, it isn't a fail safe.
People can go to other states and as long as they can do that, they will. It needs to be universal.

Dee,
I have medicaid, but I am lucky to have it. Recently Virginia switched all the people covered by medicaid, that didn't have another insurance carrier over to one of several managed care organizations. There was only one of the new providers that didn't require a lengthy pre approval process to get sub covered. Fortunately, I am responsible for my recovery now and I made the calls to find the one that did cover it without any red tape, but a lot of people I know didn't. It was their own fault, but I still hated having to hear them share about how they couldn't get their prescriptions. It went into effect July 1 and I filled my prescription on July 2 and the pharmacist told me they had already had to deny 12 current patients b/c of pre auth procedures that hadn't been done. Fortunately, Virginia recognized the wide spread problem and temporarily suspended the requirement, but believe it or not there are still several people I know who haven't either complied with the pre auth procedure required by the company they're with or used their option to change their provider within 90 days if they're not satisfied and when the suspension of the pre auth requirement ends they will still be in a mess. Procrastination is part of our disease without a doubt, but I really am aggravated about it as I have shared with each of these folks what I did the footwork to find out and that is the name of the one provider that covers it carte blanche if you are already in treatment. Like you someone said the other day you can't drag them if they don't want to come.

As for the money that is seized, here money, property, etc. that is proven to be the result of illegal drug activity goes to the oversized drug task force, most of whom are dirty as hell. You're are so right, it would be much better spent in treatment or even in drug court rather than have it fund these investigations that only lead to someone telling on someone and on up the ladder. Nobody goes to jail. Nobody gets clean. Prosecutors get a high conviction rate cause everyone pleads guilty and the circle continues all the while a good percentage of both law enforcement and the judiciary gets rich from having their palms greased so that the few who really matter are never charged. It's absolutely rediculous. I've said for years that law enforcement doesn't want to stop the illegal drug trade here because if they did succeed in doing that 90% would be unemployed. And unfortunately, I don't think that problem is limited to my neck of the woods. Too many powerful people make way too much money off of the suffering of others who are usually living in poverty for anything to ever truly be accomplished on the enforcement side. Treatment is our only hope for not leaving a nation of addicts for our grandchildren.

As always the problem is too complicated and the resources too limited is the story we will hear, but the money is available, if only it was used correctly.

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