As a result of new Florida legislation that will help crack down on the state’s increasing pill mill prescription drug epidemic, the team at South Florida’s Challenges Addiction Treatment and Relapse Prevention Center will offer evaluations to those pain clinic patients who exhibit “red flag” criteria as outlined by the law.
Failed drug tests and patients who move through a 30-day prescription supply in less than a month are both warning signs that will serve as catalysts for a pain clinic physician to recommend a patient evaluation. According to the new Florida legislation, addiction treatment facilities must meet certain criteria in order to provide evaluations. Because we serve as a mental health and addiction facility and are dually licensed, Challenges is among those approved facilities.
In addition to patient evaluations, the legislation, which went into effect on July 1, also “imposes criminal and administrative penalties for overprescribing narcotics, bans some doctors from dispensing narcotics and requires a new permitting process for pharmacies that sell medication such as oxycodone and other controlled substances,” according to a Sun Sentinel story written by Kathleen Haughney.
Although this legislation represents a much-needed step forward in the fight against pill mills and prescription drug abuse, some Florida healthcare providers are concerned about a possible spike in patients that may result from this increased regulation and whether clinics will be able to accommodate this influx. Yet facilities like Challenges Addiction Treatment Center are preparing to accept a higher number of patients in a continued effort to offer addiction treatment services to Florida residents and others in need and lower the stark statistics of prescription drug addiction which, during the first half of 2010, killed 1,268 people, according to statewide data.
Image: Flickr.com/charlesonflickr
