Gramps your absolutely correct and here in this state the system is referred to as KASPER and again as you said it was set up that only Docs,hospitals and police and pharmacies but as the system got better and the drug wars got bigger insurance companies were added as well as teaching hospitals to use as a statistics base in research,now I am sure that only certain people with a certain security level was intended to make use or access but hey we all know that any good 5th grader with a computer can make there way by hacking.
I have dealt with KASPER many years living here in KY and I will explain how it works for those of you not yet monitored and curious.
When you go the pharmacy and fill a narcotic and this includes benzo's(xanax,klonopin,valium etc) in this state they enter it into Kaspers system along with the prescribing Doc the amount you filled and the dose you are to take as well as where you filled it. This is entered everytime you fill a script anywhere in this state. So if you say are Doc shopping and you take a script in there for sa Lortab 10's written at your own Doc and you get a 120 to take 6 a day and 3 days later you hop into a different pharmacy and attempt to fill a script for lortab 10's written by your dentist for a dental procedure then bellls of warning will sound and both Docs will be notified while you patiently wait for your meds to be filled and most likely one or the other will tell them to cancel the script or not fill it until the original one runs out and depending on the Docs they both may say cancel all refills and your had! If they see where you have attempted to do this more then this time or if it looks suspicious to them that you are filling several different narcotics from several different prescribers the police may show up to investigate whether you are forging,attempting to obtain meds by fraud,or Doc shopping.
Alot of folks have a real problem with the system but other then me thinking it violates my privacy, I think it has made a world of difference by cutting down on the number of addicts showing up in the waiting rooms of your PM Docs office wasting his time and yours and making it harder for everyone to obtain meds and taking alot of drugs off the streets! I have found really the only people who scream the loudest are those diverting or addicted.
I cant say I have not run into a problem with KASPER as I did during my post-op period when my regular Doc was writting my regular meds and the Surgeon was writing a different med to cover the basis of post op pain and KASPER didnt like the fact I was filing them together but once the Docs were notified and the notifying RPH was enlightened as to the fact they KNEW,everything was OK. I still dont think the RPH liked the fact he didnt get the galory but hey? Too bad.
They meaning again the DEA also keeps a watchful eye on the amount of scripts Docs are writting via KASPER and this is where my problems are with it the most. Since we had all the oxy problems here in KY that brought about the drug wars far too many Docotrs trying to treat folks with legit pain that others would not have gotten in trouble,got investigated and some clinics even shut down,not to mention the Docs who stopped treating with opiates since the aggravation of being watched and accused of pill pushing was by far too much hassle,therefore leaving this state far too understaffed with good compassionate Doctors who would treat medicaid folks and folks with no insurance for pain when they were the only recourse some of these folks had.
That part of this systems saddens me greatly. So we had an ineviatble increase in the amount of methadone clinics that arrived and even far more folks being treated for pain at those clinics and they are NOT cheap by any means. In this area alone we have one fee based clinic with a waiting list of somewhere around a year unless your pregnant and that is immediate acceptance and 7 private pay clinics without a first visit fee of around $400 and a weekly dosing fee of a little less then $100 not to mention the required counseling sessions that you must attend once every 30days at another cost of $55 and the blood work required as well randomly somewhere about every 45 days also costing about $75. So I have known folks who have had to use their entire SS check to pay for the pain relief each month and live on the street or in a shelter.
I know Gramps this is going to enrage you and I apologize before hand but I wanted others to see the good and bad of the system if there really is any good that outweighs the bad.
There seems to have to be a better way to me then this.