PDMP SOLUTIONS

The most bidirectional data sharing of any PDMP network

PMP InterConnect® is the longest standing and most powerful data-sharing platform among PDMPs. By enabling seamless information exchange between states, healthcare providers gain comprehensive insights into patient prescription histories, empowering informed decision-making and proactive interventions.

PDMPs Sharing on
PMP InterConnect

PMP InterConnect Total
Transactions (Past 12 Months)

PDMPs use InterConnect
to exchange data

of providing powerful
data-sharing since August 2011

Statistics as of

A NATIONAL NETWORK

What Is InterConnect?

PMP InterConnect, the only national network of Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs, is a secure data-sharing hub that breaks down siloes and enables the sharing of PDMP data across state lines, providing clinicians and pharmacists with a more complete patient history upon which to make decisions. This capability is critical for physicians and pharmacists to more easily identify patients who may be obtaining prescription medications for any purpose other than the treatment of an existing medical condition, including for purposes of abuse, misuse or diversion, especially if those patients are crossing state lines to obtain drugs.

HOW IT STARTED

A National Need for
Data Sharing

An effort to create a prescription drug interstate data sharing infrastructure began in 2004. Due to the slow progress of that project and the urgent need for PDMPs to share data, in late 2010 an enterprising group of state PDMP administrators and the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) took action to develop their own tool. They designed and developed the specifications and engaged Bamboo Health to execute their vision, which would become PMP InterConnect, the only national network of PMPs.

The collaboration completed the initial phase of the project in nine months and launched the system in August 2011 with data exchanges between Indiana, Ohio and Virginia. Since that time, NABP, the PDMP administrators and Bamboo Health have worked together to add and improve functionality, usage and adoption. Today more than 90% of the nation’s PDMPs use PMP InterConnect to exchange data for hundreds of millions of patient encounters each year.

Inter-State Data Sharing

Unmatched Interconnectivity

The flow of data between states has increased each year as more use of the PMP Gateway has grown. Explore interconnectivity between states below.

PMP Gateway integration implemented
PMP Gateway integration not implemented or data not shared

Discover the Benefits & Impact of InterConnect

The interstate data sharing solution, PMP InterConnect, is run by the National Association Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) with Bamboo Health as its technology vendor and enables interoperability for 52 of the 54 PDMP’s.

InterConnect Facts & Highlights

Interstate DATA  SECURITY HIGHLIGHTS

All PDMPs communicating with PMP InterConnect are authenticated with their assigned system–level credentials.
All communications to and from PMP InterConnect are conducted over SSL, guaranteeing end-to-end message confidentiality.
PMP InterConnect encrypts all protected health information that traverses the system.
Utilizes Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) 256 bit and Rivest, Shamir, Adleman (RSA).
PMP InterConnect can never decrypt the PHI that passes through it; therefore, it is not possible for PMP InterConnect to store protected health information.
Activity logging is captured to monitor authentication attempts and for auditing purposes.
Security complies with all federal health IT security standards and has been validated in multiple third-party audits.
Annual vulnerability and penetration security audits are performed by an external vendor.
Annual HIPAA security assessments are performed by an external vendor.

CASE STUDY

PRISMA HEALTH

The Challenge

South Carolina mandates prescribers to query SCRIPTS, the state’s prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP) before writing or continuing a prescription for a controlled substance. South Carolina has been consistently among the 10 states with the highest opioid-related death rates. Recently, the state’s providers wrote 60.4 opioid prescriptions for every 100 persons, compared to the U.S. average of 46.7 prescriptions for every 100 persons.

The Solution

Prisma Health partnered with Bamboo Health to provide over 1,000 clinicians with access to SCRIPTS through EHR workflow using PMP Gateway. PMP Gateway makes accessing data and analytics easy by integrating it directly in the clinical workflows of major EHRs. This interoperability allows clinicians to retrieve patients’ prescription histories in seconds and spend more face-to-face time with their patients.

Time
Savings

With the PDMP-EHR integration, physicians avoid the tedious process of exiting the EHR, logging into the PDMP and running a query.

Boosted
Confidence

Physicians can also confidently prescribe knowing that a patient’s PDMP history in Florida has been consolidated with other state PDMP data for that patient where the states have agreed to share the data.

Better Communication

They can better communicate with insurance companies when they review the of pain medication prescribed.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is PMP InterConnect?

When/why was PMP InterConnect developed?

What is a PDMP administrator

Dispensations are medications which are ultimately provided to patients after consultation with a pharmacist or, in some states, a dispensing practitioner following the issuance of a prescription. PDMPs are comprised of dispensation data which reflects information about the patient, medication, prescriber, and pharmacy involved in the processing of the prescription.

What is the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP)?

NABP is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit association that protects public health by assisting its member boards of pharmacy and offers programs that promote safe pharmacy practices for the benefit of consumers. Its members are from the 50 United States, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Bahamas, and all 10 Canadian provinces.

How much does it cost for the states and other PDMPs to use PMP InterConnect?

It costs nothing for PDMPs to use PMP InterConnect. It is funded by the National Association of the Boards of Pharmacy.

How many states use PMP InterConnect to share data across state lines?

52 PDMPs (48 states plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Department of Defense) share data via PMP InterConnect.

Who has access to PDMP data?

PDMPs are governed by an agency of the state, district, commonwealth, or territory of the United States. The governing agency maintains the PDMP and makes its data available to authorized prescribers and pharmacists, and other individuals as permitted by statute, for use in clinical decision making. Authorized users can access that data directly through the PDMP database or via PMP InterConnect and/or PMP Gateway.

Is PMP InterConnect actively being used?

Yes! PMP InterConnect has processed over 9.89 billion transactions sharing data across 52 PDMPs in the last 12 months alone, as of March 2022, and is now delivering 1.08 billion interstate responses per month.

Is PMP InterConnect secure?

Yes. PMP InterConnect is secure. Below is a summary of the security implemented by PMP InterConnect:

All state PDMPs communicating with PMP InterConnect are authenticated with their assigned system level credentials.
All communications to and from PMP InterConnect are conducted using TLS 1.2
PMP InterConnect encrypts all Private Health Information that traverses the system and uses the technique of key encapsulation.
- Utilizes AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) 256 bit and RSA (Rivest, Shamir and Adleman)
- Message confidentiality is guaranteed from end-to-end.
PMP InterConnect can never decrypt the private health information that is passing through it and therefore it is not possible for PMP InterConnect to store private health information.
Activity logging is captured to monitor authentication attempts and all meta data about successful and unsuccessful transactions.
Annual vulnerability and penetration security audits are performed by an external vendor. All vulnerabilities rated high and medium risk are remediated and retested by a third party to verify issues are resolved. All vulnerabilities rated small in risk are evaluated on a case by case basis by the Bamboo security team to determine if they need to be remediated.
Quarterly vulnerability and penetration and security audits are performed by the Bamboo security team.
Annual HIPAA security assessments are performed by an external vendor.

Is PMP InterConnect compliant with the Prescription Monitoring Information Exchange (PMIX) National Architecture?

PMP InterConnect was developed in 2011 with all the standards utilized by the PMIX Working Group at the time. PMP InterConnect data payloads use the exact same National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) Information Exchange Package Documentation (IEPD) data standard as defined in PMIX to facilitate the information exchange of patient prescription drug history information. All PMP InterConnect data payloads validate against the XML schema as defined by the IJIS Institute in the ijis_pmix_III_ niem_2_0_iepd_v0_20_20101108 version of the PMIX standard.

To secure the data, PMP InterConnect utilizes REST as the transport protocol for connecting the state web services, and key encapsulation for encryption of data, both of which are industry standards.

Are there any other tools like PMP InterConnect?

There are no other tools that provide the customization, comprehensive capabilities, service and ease of use offered by PMP InterConnect, the only national network of PDMPs.

What about RxCheck?

RxCheck is a tool funded by the federal government that provides basic PDMP data sharing. It is owned and operated by the Bureau of Justice Assistance with oversight from IJIS Institute, which is managed by the Institute for Intergovernmental Research (IIR). RxCheck was developed and is maintained by a small business called Tetrus (www.tetruscorp.com). While RxCheck is governed by an RxCheck steering committee consisting of PDMP representatives from participating states, the Federal government has full control over RxCheck.