FRANKFORT, Ky. - Kentucky’s prescription monitoring program will soon link up with databases in other states. The Governor’s office announced Tuesday that Kentucky will sign an agreement with the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy to join the InterConnect, a network of prescription monitoring programs across the country. The Commonwealth joins 20 other states already taking part.
“Indiana, Ohio, and Virginia are up and running and sharing, and West Virginia is very soon to come on board. Which means that four of border states, hopefully we’ll be sharing data with very soon,” says Dave Hopkins, who oversees Kentucky's prescription monitoring program known as KASPER.
Prescription monitoring programs can help spot patients who go to multiple doctors for pain medication. A multi-state information exchange allows doctors and pharmacists to easily track where patients are getting their controlled substances, even if they are crossing state lines.
Kentucky had been developing another information exchange hub called the RxCheck, but the InterConnect started gaining momentum last year. NABP is providing the InterConnect as a free service for at least five years.
