Why Missouri's The Last Holdout On A Statewide Rx Monitoring Program

Patient advocates, politicians, experts and members of the medical community had hoped this would finally be the year Missouri would create a statewide electronic database designed to help spot the abuse of prescription drugs. After all, Republican Gov. Mike Parson had pushed for it and, more important, its longtime opponent was no longer in office to block it.

But, because of ongoing fears about privacy violations tangled up with gun control, the bill never got a full Senate vote. And finance site WalletHub last week ranked Missouri third worst in the country for its drug use based on a review of arrests, overdose rates, opioid prescriptions and other measures

Katie Reichard, a lobbyist with Missouri Primary Care Association who has been working in and around the Missouri legislature for almost 15 years and previously pushed for the issue, said this proposal has bedeviled the state capital as none other while the opioid crisis continues to rage nationwide.

“I’ve never seen anything take seven years to get anywhere, and especially something that’s going to be put into place to save lives.”

https://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/why-missouri-s-last-holdout-statewide-rx-monitoring-program