DEA Proposes Schedule II Prescription Rule

The DEA recently unveiled a proposed rule that will make it easier for patients with chronic pain or other chronic conditions, to avoid multiple trips to a physician. It will allow a physician to prescribe up to a 90-day supply of Schedule II controlled substances during a single office visit, where medically appropriate. The proposed rule is open for comment until Nov. 6, with physicians encouraged to offer their insights. Also new this month, DEA launched a new page on its website ( www.dea.gov  )  called “Cases Against Doctors,” a listing of criminal acts committed by those few physicians who are subject to prosecution or administrative action each year. The issued policy statement reiterates the DEA’s commitment to ensure that people who need pain relief get it, and those who abuse it, don’t, according to officials. Under the proposed rule, physicians, as they have always done, must determine whether a patient has a legitimate medical need for the prescribed substance, and the physician must be acting in the usual course of professional practice. DEA’s proposed regulation would then permit the physician to issue multiple Schedule II prescriptions, during a single office visit, allowing patients to receive a total of up to a 90-day supply of controlled substances according to the fill date that the doctor gives the pharmacist. Email your comments directly to dea.diversion.policy@usdoj.gov  To aid doctors in their responsibility to prevent the diversion and abuse of controlled substances, DEA also has updated its Practitioner’s Manual, which has been posted on www.dea.gov.