Optimum Technology Announces New Prescription Monitoring Program Implemented for the State of Nevada

COLUMBUS, Ohio [Oct. 19, 2004]
Innovative System Enhances the State's Ability to Protect the Legitimate Use of Prescription Controlled Substances While Simultaneously Reducing Fraud and Abuse

Optimum Technology, Inc., the leading provider of software solutions that help state agencies monitor controlled substance prescriptions and investigate prescription drug fraud, today announced that the Nevada State Board of Pharmacy has successfully launched an enhanced Prescription Monitoring Program (PMP) using the company's Statewide Prescription Monitoring and Investigation System.

Nevada's PMP helps prevent the abuse of prescription drugs to which some people can become addicted. Controlled substances include narcotic analgesics like hydrocodone, tranquilizers like alprazolam, and stimulants like amphetamines. "Doctor Shoppers" have been known to visit dozens of physicians and pharmacies to obtain prescription drugs through fraud, forgery, and theft. Nevada has become a national leader in methods used to provide Patient Drug Utilization Reports of controlled substance prescriptions to physicians and pharmacies.

Nevada's PMP has proven so successful that Patient Drug Utilization Report requests increased by 29,000% from 1997 to 2003. President George W. Bush recognized Nevada's leadership role in his March 2004 National Drug Control Strategy, by stating "The benefits of the program have far outweighed its annual $131,000 budget. Nevada instituted the system in 1997, and in just the first year alone, the number of narcotic drug doses dispensed to suspected abusers was cut by 46 percent..."

The original system relied on physicians and pharmacies faxing requests to the PMP, and the PMP producing and mailing back paper reports. As the inflow of prescription information and report requests increased the PMP sought a means to improve response times without adding significant processing cost.

The new system, which went live on August 1, 2004, uses web-based technology to expedite distribution of Patient Drug Utilization Reports to physicians and pharmacies. The system significantly speeds the work of the PMP staff, increases their ability to manage the system, and allows them to track cases where the program has intervened to prevent drug abuse. Funding for the new software came to the Nevada State Board of Pharmacy through Federal grants from the U.S. Department of Justice's Harold Rogers Prescription Drug Monitoring Grant Program.

"Our new system replaces the old fax/mail process with a secure Internet-based process that allows us to share data electronically. We have been able to cut the time for delivery of Patient Drug Utilization Reports to physicians and pharmacies from days to minutes," said Keith Macdonald, Executive Director of the Nevada Board of Pharmacy. "This is extremely important so physicians can obtain information they need to treat their patients and intervene in cases of abuse. The system more than doubles our staff's efficiency; it saves time and money."

"Over the past two years we have been working with leading prescription drug diversion experts at the state and local level to develop software solutions specifically designed to support state controlled substance authorities and local law enforcement in their efforts to detect, prevent and investigate the diversion and abuse of pharmaceutical drugs," said Zach Zettler, executive vice president of Optimum Technology. "Our software enables these agencies to dramatically improve their ability to efficiently collect prescription data, analyze the data to spot suspected illegal activity, manage the investigation process from start to finish, and educate health care practitioners about the nature and extent of prescription drug diversion and the agency's efforts to prevent it."

Optimum Technology is the exclusive provider of the only Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) software product of its kind on the market. The company's Prescription Monitoring and Investigation System is comprised of three modules:

—PMP Manager is designed to be used by a state controlled substance authority to facilitate the collection, analysis and reporting of information on the prescribing, dispensing and use of prescription drugs.

—Web Center is implemented as a secure web site that facilitates automated communication between a state prescription monitoring program and authorized users within the practitioner, pharmacy and law enforcement community.

—Investigation Management System (IMS) is an investigative case management system with unique functionality to support the needs of drug diversion interventions and investigations.

Nevada's PMP is under the direction of the Nevada Controlled Substances Abuse Prevention Task Force, a multifaceted group representing several state agencies and health care professional licensing boards and their associations. Day to day operations are run by the Nevada Board of Pharmacy. For more information about the Nevada Prescription Monitoring Program please contact the Nevada State Board of Pharmacy at (775) 850-1440.

About Optimum Technology
Optimum Technology provides software solutions that help law and regulatory enforcement agencies fight crime and eliminate fraud by removing barriers to information sharing, improving data reliability and timeliness, and aiding collaborative investigation. The company's solutions are helping over 500 agencies across the country protect and serve more than 17 million citizens.

For more information about Optimum Technology, call 614.785.1110 or visit www.otech.com.