Prescription Monitoring Program

About the Iowa Prescription Monitoring Program

The Iowa Prescription Monitoring Program (PMP) provides prescribers and pharmacists with information regarding patients’ use of controlled substances. The program is designed to help prescribers evaluate and monitor controlled substance medication use and treatment outcomes of their patients. 

The intent of the Prescription Monitoring Program is to lead to: 

• Increases in appropriate prescribing
• Decreases in patient abuse of controlled substances
• Decreases in controlled substance dependence
• Decreases in the diversion of these substances for illicit use

The Iowa PMP distributes quarterly activity reports to all prescribers who are registered with the program and have prescribed at least one controlled substance during the previous review period.

The PMP also sends out proactive or “threshold” notifications to prescribers and pharmacies alerting them when one of their patients receives multiple controlled substance prescriptions from multiple providers and multiple pharmacies. 

Additional information about the Iowa PMP can be found via the Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals and Licensing (DIAL). 

Iowa PMP Administration

The Iowa Board of Pharmacy administers the Iowa PMP with the assistance and guidance of an advisory council. The PMP Advisory Council consists of four physicians, three pharmacists, and one non-physician prescriber, and all are appointed by the Governor.

The PMP Advisory Council meets as needed to review the program's progress; the benefits and costs of maintaining the Iowa PMP; possible enhancements to the program; and information, comments and suggestions received from program users and the public. The PMP Advisory Council also reviews statistics regarding the use of the Iowa PMP by prescribers, pharmacists and regulatory agencies; the number of controlled substance prescriptions filled each year; the top drugs dispensed in Iowa each year; and markers indicating possible excessive pharmacy- or doctor-shopping for controlled substances.

Prescription Monitoring Program Data

Iowa PMP General Data

Iowa Prescription Monitoring Program (PMP) general data reflect the number of Iowa residents who filled a prescription for benzodiazepines, opioids, stimulant prescriptions and other schedule II, III, and IV controlled substances per 10,000 population, with at least 1 prescription submitted to the PMP in a calendar year. 

Note: Opiate antagonist data prior to 2020 are not available. Reportable controlled substances include only Schedule II-IV for 2014-2020 data.

View Iowa PMP data & visualizations

Tips for data navigation:

• Use the filters and tabs to see the different data visualizations. Available tabs: age, sex, average length of prescription in days, map displaying the average number of days for prescription by county with year filter.
• To select multiple counties click on the first county of choice, then press the Control (Ctrl) key, click on the other counties to be included in the selection. To reset the map to its initial state where all counties are displayed, click on a blank area outside the map.

Overlap Data

Iowa PMP overlap data reflect the number of Iowa residents who filled a prescription for benzodiazepines and opioids per 10,000 population, with at least one day of prescription overlap submitted to the PMP.

View Iowa PMP overlap data & visualizations

Background: Concurrent opioid and benzo prescription

In 2019, over 70 percent of prescription and illicit drug overdose deaths in the United States involved an opioid, with over 15 percent of these opioid-related overdose deaths also involving benzodiazepines.

Benzodiazepines, sometimes called "benzos," are a type of prescription sedative commonly used to treat anxiety, insomnia or other conditions. Benzodiazepines work to calm or sedate a person by raising levels of a neurotransmitter in the brain known as gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA). Combining opioids and benzodiazepines can be potentially unsafe, because both types of drug sedate users and suppress breathing, the primary cause of overdose fatality in addition to impairing cognitive functions. Studies have estimated that overdose death rates for patients receiving both benzodiazepine and opioids may be 10 times higher relative to patients receiving only opioids. Common benzodiazepines include diazepam (Valium®), alprazolam (Xanax®), and clonazepam (Klonopin®) and lorazepam (Ativan®).

In 2016, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued new guidelines for the prescribing of opioids. CDC recommends clinicians avoid prescribing benzodiazepines concurrently with opioids whenever possible. Both prescription opioids and benzodiazepines now carry FDA "black box" warnings on the label, highlighting the dangers of using these drugs together. Many patients continue to be prescribed both drugs at the same time. These prescriptions may not always come from the same prescriber or pharmacy.

About Iowa PMP Data

All pharmacies that dispense controlled substances in or into the State of Iowa are required to report to the Iowa PMP all Schedule II, III and IV controlled substance prescriptions dispensed to patients residing in Iowa. Pharmacies are not required to, but may, report prescriptions dispensed to inpatients (hospital), long term care (nursing home) and hospice patients.