Illinois now tracking drug prescriptions
The Associated Press December 4, 2012 2:08PM
Updated: January 6, 2013 9:47AM
SPRINGFIELD — An Illinois medicine-monitoring program has joined a national data-sharing network to help prevent prescription drug abuse.
The Illinois Department of Human Services will link its prescription monitoring program to a National Association of Boards of Pharmacy network.
The move will help officials from the Department of Human Services to better identify patients who have been issued duplicate prescriptions for controlled substances in different states.
To prevent abuse of prescriptions, the program will alert physicians and pharmacies when a patient has been given more than recommended dosages.
The program began in Illinois in 1986 but monitored only certain drugs.
Last year, the program collected 18 million prescription records which 19,000 doctors and pharmacies consult regularly.
A federal grant is funding the program’s expansion.
