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State police, mental health experts disagree on opioid crisis bills

Michigan State Police want lawmakers to grant them access to the prescription drug monitoring system to help fight the opioid crisis plaguing the state.

LANSING, Mich. - Michigan State Police want lawmakers to grant them more access to the state's prescription drug monitoring program.

But what troopers see as a way to control the state's deadly opioid crisis, mental health advocates say could lead to dangerous violations of patient privacy.

"Our whole concern is that it’s going to open up new avenues for law enforcement to get the names of our constituents when our constituents haven’t necessarily done a thing wrong," said Mark Reinstein, president of the Mental Health Association in Michigan.

The package of bills, SB 1245-1247, would give state police real-time access to the Michigan Automated Prescription Drug system, which tracks controlled substances doled out by pharmacists, veterinarians and doctors across the state.

MSP Sgt. Matt Williams, who has testified in support of the bills as they move through the legislature's fast-paced lame duck session, argued the legislation would allow troopers to see trends that could indicate dealers are peddling prescriptions on the street.

"This will allow us to be proactive about preventing large-scale diversion instead of merely reacting to overdose deaths and investigating those deaths after the fact," Williams testified during a Dec. 5 Senate committee hearing.

He listed examples of things that might point to a crime, like cash payment, long-distance trips to the pharmacy and multiple doctor visits in one day.

The state's prescription monitoring program requires pharmacists to input information on prescriptions patients receive and requires doctors to check patients' prescription histories before prescribing controlled substances, said Kim Gaedeke, deputy director of the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs.

The tool tracks drugs listed under the federal Controlled Substances Act on schedules 2 through 5, which includes opioids such as fentanyl, drugs used for addiction treatment such as suboxone and methadone, and more.

The monitoring program is supposed to help doctors identify patients who might be wrongfully using or addicted to drugs like opioids, which killed 1,762 Michigan residents in 2016, according to federal data.

"It helps the prescriber see if that patient has been going to multiple pharmacies, or multiple prescribers, to obtain those prescriptions and those drugs," Gaedeke said. "By seeing that, the prescriber can make better-informed decisions on what to prescribe or the type of conversation they might need to have with their patient.”

The system tracks the following information: Patients' first and last names, dates of birth and addresses, the doctor who prescribed patients the drugs, the pharmacist who filled the prescription, the drugs patients were prescribed, the quantity of drugs they received, whether patients paid with cash and whether the drugs were covered by insurance.

Doctors aren't the only ones who have access to the system, Gaedeke said. LARA has a team of analysts who look for trends that indicate prescription drugs are hitting the street.

Analysts can use those reports to investigate whether licensed health care providers or pharmacists have violated the public health code. They sometimes refer cases to law enforcement agencies if they suspect crimes occurred.

Police are already allowed to access the program in certain circumstances, Gaedeke said: With a warrant, a subpoena and when they need information for an active drug investigation. In those cases, police get patient reports, which include patient, doctor and pharmacy information.

If the bill is signed into law, state police would be the department to respond to local law enforcement's requests for reports. Data and patient information would be exempt from the state's Freedom of Information Act.

The bills state that troopers would not get patient names and other personal information. The bills also would make disclosure of personal information a crime.

That's not strong enough to ensure patient privacy, Reinstein said. He called for requiring police to document probable cause before seeking information that could identify a patient.

"One of [our constituents'] greatest fears is that people who have nothing to do with their care and treatment will find out their name, their diagnosis and the medication they’ve been receiving," he said.

Reinstein said the bills are being "rushed" through lame duck, and he called on lawmakers to amend them to be more specific about what identification information will be withheld from state police.

It would be "impossible" for troopers to use the monitoring system to check people's prescription history, Williams said during a Dec. 12 committee hearing. Instead, he said the department would use the information to help them decide where to send troopers.

"[The program would be] an initial point for an investigation to jump off," Williams testified. "The data could be used to identify a group, or even just an individual who is coming into the state to divert the drugs, and then the investigation would begin there."

State police would consult with doctors to determine what constitutes suspicious behavior, spokesperson Shanon Banner said in an email.

Contact Carol Thompson at (517) 377-1018 or ckthompson@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @thompsoncarolk.

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