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In the first study examining the impact of mandated electronic prescriptions for controlled substances, William Paterson University Professor Rahi Abouk and David Powell of the Rand Corporation published findings that show New York State’s e-prescribing mandate reduced the rate of overdoses involving natural and semi-synthetic opioids by 22 percent.
Abouk and Powell received funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to conduct the research. Their research was published in the Economics and Human Biology Journal.
“The results are very promising,” says Abouk, health economics professor in the University’s Cotsakos College of Business. “The findings suggest that after the e-prescribing mandate was enacted in New York State, beginning in April 2016, there is a significant decline in opioid mortality by approximately 22 percent compared to the states without such mandates.”
With overdose deaths escalating at an alarming rate over the past two decades, many states have adopted numerous drug-related policies to reduce the epidemic, says Abouk. New York was the first of several states to enact and fully enforce the electronic prescribing mandate.
Electronic prescribing or “e-prescribing” requires prescribers to electronically send accurate, error-free and understandable prescriptions directly to a pharmacy through a secure network. It also mechanically forces prescribers to observe patients’ histories under the prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs). “This reduces the likelihood of doctor shopping, forging, writing the wrong prescription, and error, all of which are beneficial to the health of the patient,” Abouk explains.
To do the evaluation, Abouk says the researchers compared the trend in opioid related mortality, the supply of opioids by pharmacies, and other related outcomes between New York and 12 other states in the Northeast and Midwest areas. They also found complementary evidence that the mandate was associated with a six percent reduction in opioid supply in New York.
The researchers did not find any comparable reductions or increases in overdoses involving illicitly-produced or acquired heroin or synthetic opioids.
