GREENSBORO, N.C. - Addiction can cost people their jobs, their families and even their lives. And their addiction also costs you big bucks. The CDC says addicts cost American taxpayers $72-billion every year for medical treatment! Just in case you didn't catch that number, it's 72 Billion of your taxpayer dollars.
North Carolina came up with a way to save you money and protect patients from addiction. In 2005, lawmakers created the Controlled Substance Reporting System. The online database tracks when someone gets a prescription of the same medicine from more than one doctor or pharmacist. That's a warning sign of addiction.
The audit recommended changes to bump up this number. And the biggest change would only cost taxpayers an extra $15,000 every year. But 2 Wants To Know uncovered more than a year later the state still hasn't made that change.Health Care providers are encouraged to check this tool for every narcotic prescription they write or fill. But that's not happening. A legislative audit done last year says doctors and pharmacists only used the tool to check on about 6 percent of prescriptions for controlled substances.
"We intended that it absolutely will happen. It's just we don't know when," said Dr. Courtney Cantrell with the Department of Health and Human Services.
Cantrell says the agency is still researching if there's a better way to integrate the database into doctor's normal work flow.
"We could pick a solution that who knows could end up costing a ton for providers, and we don't want that to happen. So we want to make sure we do the right thing, so we take a slow and measured approach to it," she said.
DHHS says it's talking with other states and physicians about possible solutions. But right now there is no timeline for when we can expect the system to be streamlined.
DHHS did follow through on another of the audit suggestions to cut down on painkiller addiction.
north carolina will share information about prescriptions filled in our border states of Virginia and South Carolina. The agency signed an agreement with the national association of boards of pharmacy to do that. But the function is not operation yet.
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