Providers, dispensers and state governments utilizing prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) can face challenges in building comprehensive views of controlled substance use. As the opioid epidemic continues to evolve, the solutions that states and providers are using to combat it must also evolve to keep communities safe and prevent further incidences of substance use disorder (SUD).
To address these challenges and opportunities, Bamboo Health invited clients to its second annual PDMP Leadership Summit in late June. The summit brought together clients from Boards of Pharmacy, Departments of Health and state regulatory agencies from across the country with leaders from Bamboo Health, including Chief Executive Officer Jeff Smith, Vice President of Engineering Shannon Hord, Senior Vice President of Client Relations Natalie Browning, Senior Vice President of Business Development Brad Bauer, and solution and account leadership to collaborate on an innovative approach with client feedback at the center.
To help organizations better leverage PDMP capabilities and understand innovative use cases, Bamboo Health provided guidance on several trending topics impacting PDMPs’ efficacy:
- Changes in Opioid Treatment Program Data Regulations: The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) also announced modifications to data-sharing rules in 42 Code of Federal Regulations Part 2 (“Part 2”), which apply to opioid use. With these changes, patients can now sign a general consent form that allows for the disclosure of their Part 2 data to anyone with a treatment, payment or health care operation (TPO) relationship with them. While this is anticipated to have positive results in pursuit of value-based care outcomes and improved care coordination across physical and behavioral healthcare, it’s more important than ever for organizations to have proper cybersecurity measures first. The summit discussed potential impacts on PDMPs and clinical practices, highlighting the need for clients to speak directly with state attorneys general to understand the specific impact.
- ASAP 5.0 Standard: ASAP 5.0 is the latest update to the pharmacy submission requirements used by PDMPs across the nation. This is one of the most significant upgrades to the ASAP standards in about 10 years. The summit leaders discussed the variety of adjustments needed with this update as well as potential implementation challenges. While there were many findings in Bamboo Health’s research, a small sampling of the challenges included the lack of ability to determine what information will add value to the existing patient report in terms of new fields and the breakout of the newly added fields causing challenges to existing systems.
Innovations to Keep Pace With PDMP Market Trends
The summit also discussed new solution enhancements with clients, providing an opportunity to determine specific implementation needs and share transferable insights.
- PMP Advisory Council: With the launch of a PMP advisory council, peers will have the opportunity to elect several PDMP admins to have a seat at the table with Bamboo Health leadership and discuss strategic investments.
- MOUD Prompt Rollout: A new feature will soon be available in the PMP AWARxE® solution and directly in existing workflows with PMP Gateway™: the Medication for Opioid Use Disorder (MOUD) prompt. The MOUD Prompt monitors prescription data for buprenorphine and other medications used to treat opioid use disorder to identify patients who experience a lapse in treatment, providing enhanced clinical utility with the PDMP. The solution automatically generates alerts to the prescriber and the prescriber’s delegates and will show as a notification on specified PMP prescription reports run for that patient.
- OD Insights™ Implementation in Ohio: Leadership from the Ohio Board of Pharmacy shared insight into its implementation of Bamboo Health’s OD Insights alert (also available in PMP AWARxE and PMP Gateway) to aid in overdose detection. These alerts allow for non-fatal overdose emergency department admissions to be more visible and provide information to the clinician about the patient’s history of a previous drug overdose.
- PDMP Works Website: Bamboo Health announced plans to roll out a new PDMP Works The website offers a central hub for organizations to learn more about the solution suite’s data sharing and integration capabilities.
Emphasis on Transparency and Partnership
With over 7 billion annual PDMP transactions across 44 prescription drug monitoring programs, our technology provides medical professionals with real-time and regulatory-compliant PDMP intelligence to enable more informed care decisions and better patient outcomes.
“Over the past decade, Bamboo Health has fundamentally changed the PDMP landscape for the better by building a platform that allows us to create innovation with our state partners that can then be rapidly deployed to other programs,” said Jacob Cooper, Vice President of State Account Management. “That spirit of partnership is exactly what makes Bamboo Health’s controlled substance solutions so effective. It’s not just Bamboo Health alone – the solutions were built by incorporating feedback from dozens of state agencies at every stage. Our collaborative and transparent approach allows us to create solutions that are truly effective and sustainable for our clients and the patients they serve.”
To learn more about opportunities to improve controlled substance monitoring, contact us.
