Petition to Exempt Veterinarians from the Alaska Prescription Drug Monitoring Program

The Alaska Prescription Drug Monitoring Program is a centralized database that holds controlled substance prescription information for patients across the state.

The issue:

• Veterinarians who prescribe, administer, or dispense federally scheduled II or III controlled substances are required to review the PDMP database prior to prescribing, administering, or dispensing the medication.

• Veterinarians who are directly dispensing scheduled II- IV controlled substances must report this information to the PDMP daily.

The Alaska Veterinary Medical Association Position:

• In response to the opioid epidemic, AKVMA can partner with other stakeholders to determine an effective strategy to fight opioid abuse that protects veterinarians’ ability to access, prescribe, administer and dispense opioids without compromising patient care. 

• Veterinarians should be exempt from accessing private health information and prescription data on a person prior to prescribing, administering or dispensing controlled substances for an animal.

PDMP Exemption for Veterinarians Makes Sense:

• It will allow veterinarians to provide the appropriate, timely, medical management appropriate for each patient.

• It will not diminish the judicious use of controlled substances that is already practiced by veterinarians, and regulated through the Drug Enforcement Administration.

• Will increase the efficiency of the PDMP system for its intended purpose, by allowing for more accurate interpretation of data and trends in human medicine. 

• It will eliminate unnecessary and disproportionate business burdens for veterinarians as small business owners.

• Because animals do not have a permanent identifier (date of birth is often unknown, name and owner can be changed), the PDMP has limitations in how animal data can be entered and tracked.

• Drug Utilization and Needs in veterinary medicine are significantly different from human medicine.  It is not reasonable to ask a human medical provider to assess the appropriateness of a quantity or dose of a medication for an animal patient, nor should a veterinarian determine the appropriateness of a human medication.

• Opioid prescriptions issued by veterinarians were only 0.34% of the total opioid prescriptions that were dispensed by U.S. retail pharmacies in 2017 (data from IQVIA National Prescription Audit. 1/31/2018).

• The current trend is to undo mandatory reporting in other states, due to a lack of evidence that the PDMP is an effective mechanism to monitor doctor shopping through veterinarians.  36 states already exempt veterinarians from participating in state prescription drug monitoring programs.

Please show your support for exempting veterinarians from the PDMP.