Medication Compliance Programs provide physicians with the tools they need to monitor the medications their patients are currently taking. A MCP allows physicians to safely prescribe new medications, avoiding potentially harmful interactions with current medications or (seemingly harmless) illicit or recreational drugs that may be in the patient’s system. It is important for health care providers to see the entire picture before making a treatment plan for a new or existing patient. It is ALSO very important to make sure patients are TAKING the medications their physicians are currently prescribing them. The CDC (Center of Disease Control) has declared prescription drug abuse as an EPIDEMIC in the US.
Having a drug testing policy or program in your office that is standardized across all patients helps your office approach the topic of drug testing with ease. A drug testing policy helps eliminate feelings of “patient profiling” based on racial, cultural, or other physical appearances. By creating a policy or program in your office, there will be a definitive answer when patients ask why they are being tested. Schedule II and other medications with the potential for abuse, misuse or diversion are the medications that should be monitored, causing patients who are taking these medications to comply with a MCP.
