October 1st Tamper-Proof Requirement Changes
As of October 1, 2008, all fee-for-service Medicaid prescriptions that are either hand-written or printed from an Electronic Medical Records (EMR)/ePrescribing application must contain at least one feature from each of the following three categories of tamper-resistance for a total of three features.
- 1. One or more industry recognized features designed to prevent unauthorized copying of a completed or blank prescription.
- 2. One or more industry recognized features designed to prevent the erasure or modification of information written on the prescription by the prescriber.
- 3. One or more industry recognized features designed to prevent the use of counterfeit prescription.
The previous requirement was that the prescription had to contain at least one feature from only one of the above categories.
CMS has also clarified that as of October 1, 2008, while special paper may be used to achieve tamper resistance for computer-assisted printed subscriptions, it is not necessary if the printed plain paper prescription is fully compliant with all three of the above categories. This can be accomplished through certain printer modifications and/or the use of special software.
MOST IMPORTANT—As a Medicaid regulation, states have considerable leeway regarding how these rules are interpreted and implemented. Thus, the College recommends that physicians abide by information received from the office of their State Medicaid Director or contact that office directly. A contact list for assistance regarding compliance with the temper-proof prescription regulations for each state is available
Attached are additional information the Chapters may find useful.
- 1. A copy of an article reflecting these changes that was included in the August 26 weekly ACP Internist.
- 2. A copy of a sample provider letter describing the changes developed by the College in collaboration with members of the National Council for Prescription Drug Programs (NCPDP).
In addition, an article on the tamper-proof requirement change will be featured in our "Advocacy Spotlight" during the month of September. (The article will be up on the Advocacy homepage by the end of the week).
To access recent and past state health policy reports go to the State Health Policy section on the Chapter Leadership Network (CLN) website
Please contact Shuan Tomlinson at 800-338-2746 ext. 4547 or by email at stomlinson@acponline.org with questions on these or other topics.
September 2, 2008
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