A House bill introduced on August 30, will create a nationwide Prescription Safety Alert System. It will better protect patients at risk of opioid overuse.
If the bill is passed, the Analyzing and Leveraging Existing Rx Transaction (ALERT) Act would mandate the Department of Health and Human Services to work along with the private sector. They will work on a system that can analyze data from payers and pharmacists to protect patients from opioid abuse.
This system will flag patient who is at risk of overuse based on their prescription history. Pharmacists would receive the data in the workflow itself, which will include capturing transactions from various state lines and any unsuccessful opioid fill attempts.
The idea is to stop fraudulent transactions before prescriptions are filled and empower providers to identify patients at risk of misuse.
Rep. Tom MacArthur, R-New Jersey said in a statement that by giving pharmacists, insurance companies, and programs like Medicare a new way to decipher the data they already have, it can prevent further harm. A pharmacist will have a tool to detect and prevent dangers instead of filling the unnecessary prescription.
This is a major contribution to patient care continuum and patient management too.