Physician Time Burden Associated with Querying Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs

Abstract

Relying on delegates vs physicians to retrieve reports is less costly in most cases. Automation and integration of PDMP data into electronic health records may reduce costs further. Physicians, health care systems, and states should collaborate to streamline access to PDMPs.

Prescription drug monitoring programs, opioid abuse, and crime

“…While PDMP interfaces have improved considerably, the time burden associated with retrieving PDMP patient reports remains significant. The incremental annual time costs of comprehensive usage of PDMPs, relative to minimal usage, have been estimated at about $1 million for a large health‐care system with 1,000 full‐time equivalent physicians (Bachhuber et al ., 2018), which translates into a time burden of approximately $1 billion annually for the U.S. Additionally, there is some concern that strict regulations may alter pain management practices so as to also reduce legitimate prescribing, and reduce well‐being for patients experiencing pain (Kilby, 2015). These costs of the PDMP to the healthcare system should also be balanced against the benefits derived in this study from the reduction in crime.…”

Obstetrician-gynecologist perceptions and utilization of prescription drug monitoring programs

“…The delegate model, whereby a prescriber assigns responsibility for logging in and obtaining reports to another qualified health professional, for PDMP usage has been demonstrated to be more cost-effective than prescriber-initiated PDMP query and could reduce time and resource burden for OB/GYNs. [ 20 ] As of 2020, all states (with the exception of Missouri, which is the only state that has not yet implemented a statewide PDMP) permit prescriber delegates to access the PDMP. [ 3 ] After resolving workflow issues regarding PDMP access, however, there is evidence to suggest that physicians are uncertain about how and when to discuss information gleaned from PDMPs with their patients.…”

Economic Studies on the Opioid Crisis: A Review

“…Using rich health insurance claims data, Sacks et al (2019) show that opioids dispensed to opioid-naive users decline post-PDMP. Since the databases will contain relatively little information on new users, these results suggest that PDMPs instead reduce prescribing for other reasons, the most likely being hassle costs of using the system (Bachhuber et al, 2018). 9 Using unique data from Kentucky, Alpert et al (2020) similarly suggest that reductions in physician opioid prescribing may be at least partially attributable to the hassle costs associated with using the PDMP.…”