Entries Tagged 'Controlled Substances' ↓
March 30th, 2010 — Controlled Substances, Public Policy, Security
After a long anticipated wait, the DEA is revising its regulations to provide prescribers the ability to electronically prescribe controlled substances.
On June 27, 2008, DEA published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to revise the regulation to allow creation, signature, transmission and processing of controlled substances electronically. The DEA gave consideration to over 200 comments while drafting the IFR.
The DEA’s obligation as noted in the rule, is to ensure that the regulations minimize, to the greatest extent possible, the potential for diversion of a controlled substance resulting from non-registrants gaining access to electronic prescribing applications and systems. The concern of insufficient Security has been the main barrier to allowing the ePrescription of controlled substances. The authentication methods used in online or desktop applications is generally username and password. Passwords are easily guessed or broken by using various password guessing programs.
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September 8th, 2009 — Controlled Substances
A shift from handwritten to computer-generated prescriptions was associated with a substantial increase in the proportion of controlled substances prescribed out in a New York hospital.
The removal of an impediment to prescription writing was linked to the rise in Schedule II opioids and benzodiazepines prescriptions at the emergency department of the Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center in New York, researchers claimed.
“Simple regulatory changes and lifting of barriers, such as the utilization of electronic prescriptions, can make significant changes to practice patterns and may change the way patients are treated,” the authors wrote in a study published recently by the Academy Emergency Medicine journal.
The study compared the changes in opioid and benzodiazepine prescriptions before and after the New York State implemented the “Official Prescription Program,” which was designed to reduce the amount of drugs diverted from legitimate medical use by preventing alterations, forgeries and counterfeiting of prescriptions.
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July 30th, 2009 — Controlled Substances
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) unveiled last year proposed regulations that would provide physicians and authorized prescribers with the option of issuing electronic prescriptions for controlled substances.
The agency had sought public comment on DEA’s draft rule #1117-AA61, titled “Electronic Prescriptions for Controlled Substances.” One year later, stakeholders are still waiting for DEA’s final decision to lift the e-prescribing moratorium on controlled substances.
In one of the recent developments, a bi-partisan group of senators has sent a letter in May to Attorney General Eric Holder and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius asking for a final resolution on the proposal.
The 11 senators, who signed the letter, said, “E-prescribing is held back by the DEA,” which requires a parallel paper system for scheduled pharmaceuticals. “Obviously, having to run two systems compromises any savings from e-prescribing,” they wrote.
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