Prescription drug monitoring

I was surprised to learn that the nationwide opioid prescription monitoring program, intended to surveil prescriptions to catch opioid abusers early, is hamstrung by privacy concerns about patient's medical need for prescription opioids. You'd think that the system could anonymously analyze for outliers and alert the prescribing physician of an individual that has been doctor-shopping for opioid prescriptions. 

From the court case over this privacy issue:

"The DEA argued that medical records and prescription records are distinguishable and that prescription records do not have the same expectation of privacy as medical records. The court found the distinction "nearly meaningless." The judge wrote, "It is difficult to conceive of information that is more private or more deserving of Fourth Amendment protection. That this expectation of privacy in prescription information is protected...and advertised on PDMP's public website, makes that expectation all the more reasonable"

https://www.uspharmacist.com/article/privacy-and-prescription-drug-monitoring-programs