Prescription Pads
The state of New York eliminated over $68,000,000 in fraud within six months of starting its secure prescription program.
Hand-written prescriptions for Medicaid patients - 330,000,000 prescriptions in 2007 alone - must be written on tamper resistant pads.
Background
Starting on October 1, 2008, in order for Medical outpatient drugs to be reimbursable by the federal government, all written, non-electronic prescriptions must b e executed on tamper-resistant pads. This requirement was included in section 7002(b), of the U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans' Care, Katrina Recovery, and Iraq Accountability Appropriations Act of 2007. On August 17, 2007, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), issued a letter to State Medicaid Directors with guidance on implementing the new requirement.
CMS has outlined three baseline characteristics of tamper-resistant prescription pads, but each state
will define which features it will require to meet those characteristics in order to be considered
tamper-resistant. The baseline characteristics must:
(1) prevent unauthorized copying of a completed or blank prescription form. (2) prevent the erasure or modification of information written on the prescription by the prescriber. (3) prevent the use of counterfeit prescription forms. |
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As of October 1, 2008, states must require all three characteristics on prescription pads in order to be considered tamper-resistant.
Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, New Jersey, Maine, California, Wyoming, Florida and New York already have regulations concerning manditory, tamper-resistant prescription pads. The CMS has determined that these states' characteristics meet or exceed the baseline standards, so their regulations do not require modification.
