Global Navigation
Office of The Attorney General
The State of New Jersey Office of The Attorney General (Dept. of Law & Public Safety) The State of New Jersey NJ Home Services A to Z Departments/Agencies OAG Frequently Asked Questions
Services A to Z Departments/Agencies OAG Frequently Asked Questions
OAG Home
OAG Contact
spacer
Back to News Releases
OAG Home Attorney General's Biography
Attorney General's Biography
spacer spacer spacer
   
 
spacer spacer spacer
spacer spacer spacer
For Immediate Release: For Further Information:
May 22, 2014

Office of The Attorney General
- John J. Hoffman, Acting Attorney General
Division of Consumer Affairs
- Steve C. Lee, Acting Director
Division of Law
- Jeffrey S. Jacobson, Director
Media Inquiries-
Jeff Lamm or
Neal Buccino
973-504-6327
     

Citizen Inquiries-

609-984-5828
spacer
spacer spacer spacer
spacer
New Jersey Prescription Monitoring Program Now Sharing Data with Connecticut, Giving Healthcare Practitioners in Both States Even Greater Power to Fight Prescription Drug Abuse
spacer
spacer spacer spacer
spacer
NEWARK – The New Jersey Prescription Monitoring Program (NJPMP) is now actively sharing data with Connecticut’s Prescription Monitoring Program in a partnership to empower New Jersey’s licensed healthcare professionals in the fight against prescription drug abuse and diversion, Acting Attorney General John J. Hoffman announced today.

“The NJPMP is not just a statewide resource, but a regional resource to fight the epidemic of opiate abuse,” Acting Attorney General Hoffman said. “As powerful as our prescription tracking database is, healthcare users were only able to obtain information about prescriptions written in New Jersey. Today we are expanding the NJPMP to help prescribers and pharmacists identify doctor-shopping and other suspicious behaviors across state lines.”

The partnership with Connecticut is just the beginning, Acting Attorney General Hoffman noted. The New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs, which maintains the NJPMP, also is working to implement a partnership with the State of Delaware for mutual data-sharing between the two states’ prescription monitoring programs. The Division also is communicating with other states, with the ultimate goal of creating a regional Prescription Monitoring Program network.  The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) is facilitating the connection between New Jersey’s and Connecticut’s prescription monitoring programs, through its PMP Interconnect (PMPi) data-sharing hub.

“Our goal is to make New Jersey’s Prescription Monitoring Program a model for the nation in terms of its ease of use, breadth of available data, and usage by prescribers and pharmacists,” Division of Consumer Affairs Acting Director Steve Lee said. “The Division of Consumer Affairs doesn’t just regulate the healthcare community; we are working to fully engage that community in the fight against this public health crisis.”

The NJPMP collects detailed information on every prescription filled in New Jersey for controlled dangerous substances (CDS) or human growth hormone – more than 32 million prescriptions since data collection began in September 2011. Each record includes the names of the patient, doctor, and pharmacy; purchase date; type, dosage and amount of medication; and method of payment.

The NJPMP is available to all licensed healthcare practitioners who are authorized by the State of New Jersey to prescribe or dispense CDS medications. They can search individual patients’ prescribing patterns and learn, for example, whether a patient has engaged in “doctor shopping” – deceptively visiting multiple physicians, to obtain more narcotics than any one doctor would prescribe – or other patterns consistent with addiction or abuse.

Through the new partnership between the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs and the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection, licensed healthcare practitioners in each state now are able to access data from the other state’s prescription monitoring program.

Each state’s requirements for, and limitations on, prescription monitoring program data will remain in place under the data-sharing agreements. For example, New Jersey healthcare practitioners who wish to access data from Connecticut’s prescription monitoring program must be properly licensed and registered in New Jersey, and must meet all applicable requirements of Connecticut’s prescription monitoring program. Practitioners licensed in Connecticut are similarly bound by New Jersey’s requirements regarding access to, and confidentiality of, NJPMP data.

“The ability to share controlled substance prescription data across our two states will be of great help in properly managing patient treatment, including referrals to substance abuse or addiction treatment when appropriate,” Connecticut Commissioner of Consumer Protection William M. Rubenstein said. “The scourge of prescription drug abuse defies geographical boundaries as it disregards human lives.”

Today’s announcement was made in connection with National Prevention Week, an observance dedicated to increasing public awareness of substance abuse issues.

On Tuesday, the Star-Ledger published an op-ed by Acting Director Lee, urging New Jersey’s licensed healthcare providers to embrace the NJPMP as a life-saving tool in the fight against prescription drug abuse. The op-ed can be read in full here.

For much more information on the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs' initiative to halt the diversion and abuse of prescription drugs, view the Division's NJPMP website, and the Division's Project Medicine Drop website.

Follow the Division of Consumer Affairs on Facebook, and check our online calendar of upcoming Consumer Outreach events.

spacer
spacer spacer spacer
spacer
 
 
Contact OAG About OAG
OAG News OAG Frequently Asked Questions
OAG Library Employment
OAG Grants Proposed Rules
OAG History OAG Services A-Z
OAG Agencies / Programs / Units
Other News Pages Otras Noticias en Español Division of NJ State Police Division of Law News Governor's Office News Division of Highway Traffic Safety News Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Juvenile Justice Commission News Division on Civil Rights News Division of Consumer Affairs News Division of Criminal Justice News Election Law Enforcement Commission Division of Gaming Enforcement News
NJ State Police News Governor's Office News Division of Highway Traffic Safety News Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Juvenile Justice Commission News Division on Civil Rights News Division of Consumer Affairs News Division of Criminal Justice News Election Law Enforcement Commission Division of Elections News Division of Gaming Enforcement News Office of Government Integrity News

free PDF plugin

NJ State Police News Governor's Office News Division of Highway Traffic Safety News Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Juvenile Justice Commission News Division on Civil Rights News Division of Consumer Affairs News Division of Criminal Justice News Election Law Enforcement Commission Division of Elections News Division of Gaming Enforcement News Office of Government Integrity News
   
Contact Us | Privacy Notice | Legal Statement | Accessibility Statement
NJ Home Logo
Departmental: OAG Home | Contact OAG | About OAG | OAG News | OAG FAQs
Statewide: NJ Home | Services A to Z | Departments/Agencies | FAQs
Copyright © State of New Jersey
This page is maintained by OAG Communications. Comments/Questions: email or call 609-292-4925
OAG Home OAG Home NJ State Police News Governor's Office News Division of Highway Traffic Safety News Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Juvenile Justice Commission News Division on Civil Rights News Division of Consumer Affairs News Division of Criminal Justice News Election Law Enforcement Commission Division of Elections News Division of Gaming Enforcement News Office of Government Integrity News Click to Enlarge Image Click to Enlarge Image Click to Enlarge Graphic Click to enlarge chart Click to enlarge map Click to Enlarge Click to Enlarge Click to Enlarge Click to Enlarge Click to Enlarge Click to Enlarge Click to Enlarge Click to Enlarge Click to Enlarge Click to Enlarge Click to Enlarge Click to Enlarge Click to Enlarge Click to Enlarge Click to Enlarge Click to Enlarge Click to Enlarge Click to Enlarge Click to Enlarge Click to Enlarge Click to Enlarge Click to Enlarge