Palm Trees

Doctor Shopping for Prescription Opioids Increasing in California

Doctor shopping is becoming a significant past time in the state of California. In fact, according to a release from AAPMedicine, there has been a two-fold increase in the likelihood of individuals receiving opioids from multiple providers or doctor shopping when they were also being prescribed a single additional class of a controlled substance at the same time.

This information is gathered from California’s prescription monitoring program, the Controlled Substances Utilization Review and Evaluation System (CURES). This data also found there was a 13-fold increase for individuals seeing multiple providers.

Prescription monitoring programs (PMPs) are in place in more than 34 states as states continue to try and address prescription drug abuse, addiction and diversion. PMPs are in place to prevent doctor shopping. At this point, there is limited published data that shows the frequency of multiple provider episodes for controlled substances.

Researchers at the University of California, Davis, found that the prescription data from the CURES program found roughly half of the multiple provider episodes or doctor shopping cases that involved more than one occurrence.

From this research it was also reported that roughly 13 percent of those occurrences involved prescriptions for opioid prescriptions. Another 4 percent were for benzodiazepines, while 1.4 percent accounted for stimulant amphetamines and 0.8 percent for diet amphetamines.

Scott Fishman MD, lead researcher and AAPM Director at Large, Past President (2005), and AAPM Chair of Legislative and Regulatory Affairs said in a statement, "These preliminary data suggest that multiple prescribing of controlled substances is a real problem.

The AAPM has long advocated for PMPs that make useful data available to prescribers at the point of care so they can help mitigate this problem. As our regulators and legislators seek solutions for minimizing prescription drug abuse, this study should help elucidate the value of PMPs that partner with clinicians in appropriate monitoring."