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Bill would require screening on prescription pain relievers

Few doctors use online database

By Chelsea Conaboy and Noah Bierman

 |  Globe Staff  

  February 01, 2012

Despite a surge in deadly addictions to prescription painkillers in Massachusetts, few physicians have tapped into an online prescription database created in 2010 aimed at preventing “doctor shopping’’ by patients searching for the powerful drugs. The Senate is scheduled to vote on a bill tomorrow that would require doctors, in most cases, to first check the database before prescribing the pain relievers, including oxycodone and morphine. Massachusetts has one of the highest rates of opioid abuse in the country, according to national statistics.

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