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It wasn’t too long ago when Florida had the unfortunate distinction as the pill mill capital of the country before federal and state crackdowns. But as Matt Galka tells us, some residents find themselves on the wrong side of trying to get their legitimate prescriptions filled, and now state rules on how pharmacists dispense pain meds are getting a review.

Out of control prescription pain killer abuse gave Florida a bad reputation just five years ago.  Rampant narcotic use caused thousands of overdose deaths and Florida was the pill mill capital of the country. Federal and state regulations changed all of that, but now there are problems on the other side.

Floridians with legitimate ailments are finding it hard to get pharmacies to fill their prescriptions for painkillers.  The state’s pharmacy board met Monday to discuss how to increase access for those in need.

“The DEA and the state government has set in place laws to limit abuse and diversion, but the pendulum has swung too far the other way and people with real need are not getting medicines,” said the Florida Medical Association’s Jesse Lipnick, M.D.

Pharmacy stakeholders say they’re hopeful there is a middle ground between providing patients with the medication they need and opening the state back up to pill mills.

Florida Pharmacy Association CEO Michael Jackson admits pharmacists are nervous about violations and fines in the wake of the painkiller crackdown.  He thinks getting more use out of the state’s prescription drug database, where doctors could log their patients drug information and pharmacists could consult it for validation, is a good first step.

“It would be a good standard of care for both pharmacies and pharmacists, there’s data showing that we are going into that database on a regular basis, and encourage our physician college to query that database as well, too, because we can’t fill a prescription that was never written,” said Jackson

The state’s board of pharmacy has a list of red flags for pharmacists that can prevent or delay a patient from getting medicine. The board says they’re open to revising some of those in order to help improve patient access.

Changing pharmacy rules to make them more patient friendly is still only under consideration, and the department of Health says there are still several more steps that need to be taken before anything is changed.