President Bush on Saturday signed a bill delaying implementation of the law requiring physicians to use tamper-resistant prescription pads for Medicaid patients. The new implementation date is April 1, 2008. This six-month extension will allow physicians and pharmacists time to make sense of the new and somewhat confusing rules and ensure that patient care and access to prescription drugs is not negatively impacted.

As you have read in previous issues of CMA Alert, CMA aggressively lobbied Congress for just such a delay. The association remains concerned, however, that the additional hassle and cost involved will force physicians to leave the Medi-Cal program, where access to care is already a problem. CMA continues to seek to reverse the law or at least make it consistent with current state law, which requires security prescriptions only for controlled substances.

For more information on state and federal security prescription rules, see CMA ON-CALL documents #0510, “Drug Prescribing (Not Schedule II-V Drugs),” and #0509, “Controlled Substance Prescribing.” ON-CALL documents are free to members at the members-only website. Nonmembers can purchase ON-CALL documents for $2 per page in the CMA Bookstore.

Contact: Elizabeth McNeil, 415/882-3376 or emcneil@cmanet.org.