Controlled substances are currently not permitted to be filed via electronic means per Drug Enforcement Administration regulations. If a user attempts to send a prescription for a controlled substance electronically, a system message informs the user that this medication cannot be filled this way and offers the option to print the prescription. You may then fax it or have the recipient deliver a tamper resistant paper prescription, depending on regulations.
Earlier this year, the DEA published a proposed rule to allow e-prescribing of controlled substances. If adopted, this rule would give prescribers the option of adding Schedule II drugs to the other medications routinely prescribed electronically. The rule, as currently written, would require prescribers to have their identity verified in person at a DEA-registered hospital that has granted the doctor privileges to practice at the hospital, a state professional or licensing board, or a state or local law enforcement agency.
With his or her identity verified, prescribers could use e-prescribing by using two-factor authentication (using a password in addition to a device in the doctor’s possession that could be a personal digital assistant, a cell phone, a smart card, a thumb drive, or multifactor one-time password token), and support strong security so that there would be virtually no possibility that the e-prescription could be diverted or altered1.
A public commenting period for this proposed rule expired Sept. 25, 2008. Groups representing physicians, pharmacies and health information technology vendors have expressed concern that the rule—as currently written—could impede adoption of e-prescribing, and compel physicians who use e-prescribing to maintain a paper-based system for controlled substances and an electronic system for other drugs.
1Ferris, Nancy. DEA proposes rules to allow e-prescribing of controlled substances. Federal Computer Week. 17 June, 2008. Accessed 11/28/08 from http://www.fcw.com/online/news/153239-1.html
