Controlled Medication Prescriptions

September 2013

Re: Controlled Medication Prescriptions (e.g. Ambien, Valium, Xanax, Testosterone, Oxycodone, etc.)

Dear Patients,

As you may have heard through popular press, the state of New York has instituted an aggressive law to stymie prescription drug abuse. The I-STOP law mandates controlled drug prescribers to utilize the state Prescription Monitoring program each time a prescription is issued. Essentially, this requires your primary care provider at Astor Medical to run your name through a central database each time a prescription is issued. For obvious reasons, this has caused aggravation in the medical and patient community. If you would like to review the law, we encourage you to access the detailed information available through the Department of Health website. The next time you request any controlled medication refill with our practice, we require that you make an appointment with your medical provider in order to be properly consented for enrollment in this monitoring program. We would like to emphasize that this is not a policy unique to our practice, and it is a state mandate with severe penalty for medical providers who fail to participate. All patients are to be enrolled regardless of health condition, duration on medication, or demographic.

Sincerely,
Astor Medical