As the opioid crisis continues, calls to curb and prevent abuse have become more urgent.
In 2016, California passed SB 482, which will require physicians to check the Controlled Substances Utilization Review and Evaluation System, better known as CURES, before prescribing opioids and other controlled substances to a patient for the first time. The law also requires the authorized prescriber to check the CURES database at least once every four months while the drug remains part of the treatment. The law is to take effect six months after the state certifies the database is ready.
As of this writing, the database is not scheduled to be certified by the California Department of Justice until July 2018, meaning that authorized prescribers will be required to start checking January 2019 at the earliest.
In February, the California Assembly Committee on Business and Professions held an informational hearing on CURES. Among the topics discussed, and adding to the urgency of this crisis, is the concern by many healthcare professionals of the practice of “doctor shopping” by patients, addicts, and others looking for dangerous narcotics. Supporting such urgency is a finding by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control that 21.4 percent of unintentional prescription overdose deaths involve patients who had engaged in doctor shopping.
In a written statement to the committee, the Attorney General’s Office has said that the database’s capacity for handling information “was half of what is needed in order to be certified” and that the office has been in the process of both hiring more personnel and increasing the system’s capacity. The California Medical Association has also weighed in on the issue by suggesting further work needs to be done to make physicians’ access and reports using CURES less burdensome.
California is one of 39 states that mandate physicians and other authorized prescribers check their statewide prescription and drug-monitoring databases. While the emphasis of setting up and utilizing these tracking databases may center on the protection of patients and combatting the crisis, proper use of CURES can also be a strong tool for physicians to protect themselves from being “shopped.” The more the system is used and maintained, the stronger and more reliable the data will become.
If you have not yet registered as an authorized prescriber in the CURES database, you can do so at: https://cures.doj.ca.gov/registration/confirmEmailPnDRegistration.xhtml
Gabriela Villanueva is CAP’s Public Affairs Analyst. Questions or comments related to this article should be directed to gvillanueva@CAPphysicians.com.