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Audit: N.H.'s Prescription Drug Monitoring Is a Mess

FILE

A new audit by the state shows New Hampshire’s Prescription Drug Monitoring Program isn’t performing well.

The 226-page report released Friday says the systems necessary for an effective prescription drug monitoring program were either “misoriented, poorly structured or altogether absent.”

The report goes on to say that the three-year-old program failed to collect and utilize the data it gathered, it didn’t enforce participation by providers, and it never outlined how to spot or address so-called “doctor shopping,” which was one of the main reasons the program was created.

The Legislative Budget Office conducted the audit. It made nearly 30 recommendations, most of which the Board of Pharmacy has agreed to address.

New Hampshire was the second-to-last state in the country to get a prescription drug monitoring program approved in 2012. 

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