The Florida Department of Health (DOH) today was awarded a $400,000 enhancement grant – the maximum amount possible – from the Harold Rogers Prescription Drug Monitoring Program for an electronic system to monitor the dispensing of controlled substances in Florida. When Florida’s Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) is in place, it will be a repository of data about every dispensing transaction of a Schedule II, III, or IV controlled substance between a patient and his or her physician, dentist, or pharmacist.
After years in development, legislation authorizing the PDMP was passed in 2009 and is now law (s. 893.055, Florida Statutes). The law does not allow for any state funding of the program; however, the recently-awarded enhancement grant and the 2009 Harold Rogers Implementation grant, also in the amount of $400,000, will be used to administer the program.
The primary purpose of the Harold Rogers Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) is to enhance the capacity of regulatory and law enforcement agencies and public health officials to collect and analyze controlled substance prescription data and other scheduled listed chemical products through a centralized database administered by an authorized state agency. The program was created by the FY 2002 U.S. Department of Justice Appropriations Act (Public Law 107-77) and has received funding under each subsequent year’s Appropriations Act.
DOH’s Division of Medical Quality Assurance (MQA) is coordinating Florida’s PDMP.
