Prescribing Law Updates - 2013
By: Becky Morrissey
Prescribing Law Updates for 2013
Tennessee physicians should be aware of some law changes impacting prescribers in the coming months.
Effective July 1:
Venue Change for DEA Violation Prosecution
If a physician discovers that his or her DEA number has been used without permission, local law enforcement should be alerted. Beginning July 1, the venue for prosecution of the offender may be either the county where the offense is committed or the county where the physician practices or resides, regardless of whether the defendant was ever in the county. Previously, prosecution was in the location where the prescription was filled and could be inconvenient for a physician reporting a crime to testify in a location outside of their county of practice or residence.
 This law also allows for the defendant to be charged with identity theft and prescription drug fraud for possessing, acquiring, obtaining or attempting to acquire or obtain a controlled substance by misrepresentation, fraud, forgery, deception or subterfuge.
Effective October 1:
Rx Database Query Change
Starting October 1, each prescriber may authorize an unlimited number of licensed individuals and up to two unlicensed individuals to be registered in the Controlled Substance Monitoring Database (CSMD) under his or her name to query on their behalf. This is an improvement on current law which requires
extenders to register separately for each prescriber.   An extender authorized by a prescriber may check the controlled substance database for other prescribers in the authorizing prescriber’s practice. This change should smooth out the process of checking the database as required by new state law that took effect April 1.
Questions?
Contact us at [email protected] or 800-659-1862. For more information, see our Law Guide topics titled Prescriptions and Controlled Substance Monitoring Database at www.tnmed.org/lawguide. Member login is required to view these items.
