A Colorado database used to prevent prescription drug “doctor shopping” is in peril after the state Senate Appropriations Committee voted against renewing the program.

Proponents of the state’s Prescription Drug Monitoring Program are drafting a bill to try to keep the database running, saying it is essential in the fight against painkiller abuse and misuse.

“It is absolutely critical for the physicians in this state,” said Edie Sonn of the Colorado Medical Society.

“Doctors explain how frequently they use it and how it’s helped them do everything from protect patients from drug interactions, to not fill a prescription for patients who are doctor shopping,” Sonn said.

Last month, health care providers who prescribe painkillers were surprised and then alarmed by the Appropriations Committee’s decision in light of Colorado’s prescription-drug abuse crisis.

Painkiller abuse is on the rise in Colorado and has deadly consequences, according to data from the federal Drug Enforcement Administration in Denver.

In Colorado, the number of people who died from prescription-drug abuse rose 95 percent during the past decade, according to the DEA.

“If (the PDMP) goes away, there is no mechanism to track the movement of prescription drugs across Colorado,” said Chris Lines, a spokesman for the Department of Regulatory Agencies. “It means there will be no reporting requirements for doctors or pharmacies.”

In 2005, the General Assembly passed the law establishing the database, which was up and running in 2007.

The computerized database allows physicians to look up narcotics that patients have been prescribed to see whether they have visited different doctors to obtain a surplus of painkillers.

The PDMP includes the patient’s name, the health care provider who prescribed the narcotics, and which pharmacy issued the medication.

The database costs about $270,000 a year to run, and funding is provided by federal grants and fees on the licenses of health care providers who write prescriptions.

State Sen. Pat Steadman, D-Denver, chairman of the Appropriations Committee, said he and a bipartisan group of five others voted against renewing the PDMP on Feb. 25 because they have concerns over privacy and how informed the public is about their prescription information going into the database.

“I have concerns . . . if patients are aware of the fact the state is tracking the information,” he said. “I am concerned about who has access to the database and concerned about the funding of the program and about where some of the revenues have gone.”

Steadman says he will consider a revised late bill on the PDMP if he feels it addresses those issues.

Dr. Scott Hompland, a chronic-pain and addiction specialist, says the database is essential for patient safety and to protect doctors from overprescribing medications.

“I need to know if anybody else is giving them pain pills,” he said. “So this is our only tool we have to battle back.”

Felisa Cardona: 303-954-1219 or fcardona@denverpost.com