Arizona has statewide records of 12 million controlled substance prescriptions that were written and filled last year. A new bill would require doctors and pharmacists to use an online system, in place since 2007, to check state Medicaid patient’s current scripts before prescribing more medications.

A similar bill was introduced last year but didn’t pass.

The system called, Arizona’s Controlled Substances Prescription Monitoring Program, is a database that doctors and pharmacists can request patient data from.

System Director Dean Wright said currently 32 percent of all prescribers and 60 percent of pharmacists voluntarily use the system. 

“The [current] law doesn’t require them to get access and use the database that we have, Wright said. “The law just says we have to collect this data and make it available to prescribers to use but they aren’t required to actually use it.”

Data from the system indicates nearly half of the recorded prescriptions in 2014 were for opiates. Wright said the database is intended to help curb prescription misuse from the source. 

“If they are looking up each and every patient, they can see if patients are getting drugs from multiple doctors and take that into account before they prescribe," Wright said.

Wright said since the Phoenix Veterans Affairs Health Care System started uploading its records to the statewide system last year, he has seen an increase of 2 million prescriptions.

Arizona Health Care Containment Cost System officials said in a statement that requiring physicians to use the database is an issue for policymakers.