June 29, 2011
Starting July 1, healthcare professionals who prescribe controlled substances must comply with new patient notification requirements. Prescribers, including dentists, must notify any patient who gets a prescription for a controlled substance that the patient’s identifying information will be entered into a statewide database of controlled substance prescriptions. The database is called the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program or PDMP. CDA members, click here to download sample forms and labels with notification language available to members only on the CDA Website.
The PDMP database is a free tool that provides objective information about patients’ history of controlled substance use to guide appropriate prescribing. Any healthcare provider who is authorized to prescribe controlled substances can register to view the PDMP database at https://www.coloradopdmp.org by using his/her dental license number and other key pieces of identifying information.
When the PDMP database was reauthorized in May 2011, the Colorado state legislature added the new patient disclosure requirement. It’s important to note that the patient notification requirement exists regardless of whether or not you, as a prescriber, choose to use the PDMP database.
Your options to comply with the new notification requirements are broad. A few of the ways you can comply include:
- verbally notifying patients of the database when you prescribe a controlled substance,
- asking patients to sign a consent form (like HIPAA) that informs them of the database during the registration/check-in process at your office, or
- stamping or printing a disclaimer on the prescription pad about the PDMP database.
In time, vendors of prescription pads may add the required disclaimer language to standard-issued prescription blanks. In the meantime, to assist with compliance, the CDA has made sample forms and labels with notification language available to members only on the CDA Website. Visit cdaonline.org/pdmp to download helpful compliance tools.
Please note that you must login to the CDA Website using your ADA number and last name in order to view these tools.