Governor Cuomo announces progress on state's efforts to crack down on prescription drug abuse

ALBANY - Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced progress of New York State's efforts to crack down on prescription drug abuse through the successful implementation of the Internet System for Tracking Over-Prescribing Act (I-STOP) and other portions of the recent Prescription Drug Reform law. Under this legislation, more than 66,000 health care professionals across the State have run more than seven million individual prescription checks on nearly three million separate patients since August 2013.

By comparison, the State's older prescription monitoring program that predated these reforms was only utilized by approximately 5,000 practitioners who checked less than 500,000 patients over a three and a half year period.

'Prescription drug abuse is a nationwide epidemic, and with the I-STOP system New York State is showing tremendous success in cracking down on this problem,' Governor Cuomo said. 'My administration is working around the clock to strengthen New York's healthcare delivery system, and by eliminating this dangerous and illegal fraud, we are making New York's communities safer and healthier for all.'

Nirav Shah, M.D., M.P.H., Commissioner of the New York State Department of Health (DOH), detailed this information today at the Joint Legislative Public Hearing on the 2014-2015 Executive Budget Proposal.

'Under Governor Cuomo's leadership, I-STOP has become a national model for more effectively tracking controlled substances by requiring pharmacies to report prescription information to New York's... Read the rest of this article in State News