DEA Rule Change on Multiple Rx's

IMPORTANT DEA RULE CHANGE NOTICE!!!
Please post in pharmacy(pdf.).
Effective December 19th, 2007, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is finalizing a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that was published on September 6, 2006. This proposed amendment allows practitioners to provide patients with multiple prescriptions, to be filled sequentially, for the same schedule II medication, with such multiple prescriptions having the combined effect of allowing a patient to receive over time up to a 90-day supply of a schedule II medication.

§1306.12 Refilling prescriptions; Issuance of multiple prescriptions.
(a) The refilling of a prescription for a controlled substance listed in Schedule II is prohibited.
(b) (1) An individual practitioner may issue multiple prescriptions authorizing the patient to receive a total of up to a 90-day supply of a Schedule II controlled substance provided the following conditions are met:
(i) Each separate prescription is issued for a legitimate medical purpose by an individual practitioner acting in the usual course of professional practice;
(ii) The individual practitioner provides written instructions on each prescription (other than the first prescription, if the prescribing practitioner intends for that prescription to be filled immediately) indicating the earliest date on which a pharmacy may fill each prescription;
(iii) The individual practitioner concludes that providing the patient with multiple prescriptions in this manner does not create an undue risk of diversion or abuse;
(iv) The issuance of multiple prescriptions as described in this section is permissible under the applicable state laws; and
(v) The individual practitioner complies fully with all other applicable requirements under the Act and these regulations as well as any additional requirements under state law.
(2) Nothing in this paragraph (b) shall be construed as mandating or encouraging individual practitioners to issue multiple prescriptions or to see their patients only once every 90 days when prescribing Schedule II controlled substances. Rather, individual practitioners must determine on their own, based on sound medical judgment, and in accordance with established medical standards, whether it is appropriate to issue multiple prescriptions and how often to see their patients when doing so.

§1306.14 Labeling of substances and filling of prescriptions.
(e) Where a prescription that has been prepared in accordance with section 1306.12(b) contains instructions from the prescribing practitioner indicating that the prescription shall not be filled until a certain date, no pharmacist may fill the prescription before that date.

*taken from Federal Register/ Vol.72, no. 222 pgs. 64921-64930 on 11/24/07 published November 19th, 2007.

**Special thanks to Lee Ann Bradley, Pharm.D., BCPS for awareness on this issue.**

**Full 10 page pdf. of Federal Register on Issuance of Multiple Prescriptions including comments and discussions**

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Mark W. Caverly, Chief, Liaison and
Policy Section, Office of Diversion
Control, Drug Enforcement
Administration, Washington, DC 20537,
Telephone (202) 307–7297.