Citation

Virani S, Aoun EG, Genova N, Brainch N, Gomes CA, Ahmed S, Hurley B, Bazzi L. Psychiatr. Serv. 2018; 69(9): 956-958.

Affiliation

Dr. Virani, Dr. Brainch, Dr. Gomes, and Dr. Bazzi are with the Department of Psychiatry, Maimonides Medical Center, New York. Dr. Aoun is with the Columbia-Cornell Forensic Fellowship Program, New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York. Dr. Genova is with the Department of Psychiatry, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York. Dr. Ahmed is with the Nassau University Medical Center, East Meadow, New York. Dr. Hurley is with the Department of Family Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles. Marvin S. Swartz, M.D., is editor of this column.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, American Psychiatric Association)

DOI

10.1176/appi.ps.201800143

PMID

29921192

Abstract

This column describes the Internet System for Tracking Over-Prescribing (I-STOP), New York State's prescription monitoring program, and its compatibility with HIPAA and Part 2 of Volume 42 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). The authors review use of information that is permitted by I-STOP and CFR for health care operations, including disclosure, and present information from the state Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement about appropriate use of the program. Physicians are permitted, for example, to contact other prescribers in I-STOP, even without explicit permission from the patient, an area in which physicians need more training. Common clinical scenarios encountered while navigating I-STOP are described.

Language: en

Keywords

Confidentiality; Drug abuse; Ethics; I-STOP; Law