Missouri final state to pass prescription drug pricing database legislation

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Missouri’s State Senate passed legislation to make it the final state to adopt a prescription drug pricing database. The bill would create a database pharmacists and doctors could check to see if patients have recently filled or been prescribed addictive medications.

According to the Missourian, state senators voted 22-9 in favor of approving the measure intended to help ease the state’s growing opioid epidemic. However, because of changes made by Senators to the bill, it must head back to the state’s House of Representatives for review.

"People are going to avoid those addictions because doctors are going to have information that may catch them before they get too far down the road that they can't go back," said Sen. Dave Schatz, the newspaper reported.

The news outlet added Missouri has long been the only holdout in creating such a program due to “fierce criticism by some state lawmakers who have privacy concerns about keeping medical information in a database.”