Hearing next week on painkiller tracking

ALBANY -- A Long Island senator has slated a hearing next week on the issue of tracking narcotic painkillers from prescription through purchase, just as momentum seems to be gaining for legislative action.

Sen. Kemp Hannon (R-Garden City) said the session in Albany would be a "roundtable discussion" about efforts to require "real time" reporting by physicians and pharmacists when prescribing and dispensing such drugs as oxycodone.

Hannon said there is "a sense of urgency" that lawmakers take action during the current legislative session. "It may take five or six different pieces of legislation" to adequately address the issue, he added.

Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has made the issue a high priority, touting a bipartisan bill that would mandate an Internet-based monitoring system that would provide doctors and pharmacies with immediate updates. The Democrat said it would help prevent "doctor shopping," the practice of frequenting several different doctors and pharmacies for prescription painkillers.

Schneiderman earlier this year issued a report saying that prescriptions for oxycodone, an opiate painkiller, skyrocketed 82 percent across New York from 2007 to 2010. Statewide, the number of prescriptions for all narcotic painkillers has risen about 36 percent, and admissions to hospitals for narcotics abuse have soared, he said.

Schneiderman said the state's current voluntary program fails to track prescriptions and sales. "Momentum is growing" for a better tracking system, said Schneiderman spokeswoman Jennifer Givner.

Some physicians and pharmacists, however, oppose an Internet system because they believe it would be less secure than the current one and that the attorney general's proposal would be too burdensome.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo told Newsday last week that he would soon offer a plan to better regulate prescription drugs.