The stakeholder that I chose to represent prescription drug
abuse is The AMA. For those who don’t keep tabs on all medical associations, I’ll
help you out. The AMA stands for The American Medical Association. I chose this
as my stakeholder because the AMA has long held that, “The central principle of
balance—between preventing controlled substance abuse, trafficking, and
diversion and ensuring access to necessary pain medication should guide
policy-makers as they craft solutions to address these complex problems”(American
Medical Association). Since 2005, the AMA, along with many other stakeholders
in the health care community, has supported and helped secure passage of the
National All Schedules Prescription Electronic Reporting Act (NASPER) as an
essential tool in combating prescription drug abuse and diversion. Some ideas
the AMA supports are as followed:
-Positive incentives to promote physician education
-Federal funding for a national framework to support accessible
state-level take-back locations to remove unneeded prescription drugs
-Enforcement actions to halt “pill mill” activities
-Full funding and staffing for up-to-date prescription drug
monitoring programs
-State-based tools and resources that support identification
and assessment of state-based addiction
These are just a few ways the AMA is trying to crack down the
issue of prescription drug abuse. They of course realize they can’t do it on
their own so they also collaborate with other people and organizations in order
to get their work done. The following list is a few of the other organizations:
-NCOIL
-The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy software
program "InterConnect" that provides HIPAA compliance.
Its obviously going to take a lot of work, dedication, and
persistence to crack down on the abuse of prescription drugs but I think The
AMA is taking great strides in order to do so.
"Combating
Prescription Drug Abuse and Diversion." American Medical Association.
N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Feb. 2014.
