A new law in Texas delays the requirement for physicians and pharmacists to check the prescription drug monitoring program to March 2020.
Pharmacies have been reporting controlled substance prescriptions they fill to the PMP database since 2017. However, industry experts have asked that the original September 2019 deadline for all pharmacists and physicians to check the system be pushed back, citing concerns that system integration wouldn't be ready on time. There were worries that doctors would lose time having to jump from program to program in order to collect a patient's records.
"Build in some flexibility into the timeline to allow for more system integration, I think there would be a benefit in that," Walgreens senior manager of professional affairs Thompson George requested to the legislators in a hearing of the Interim Joint Committee on Prescribing & Dispensing Controlled Substances in 2018.
You can read the full story from our sister station KXAN News in Austin by clicking here.
