Idaho News: Tamper-Resistant Pad Requirement Postponed

December 1, 2007 4:26 PM Topics: Tamper resistant prescription

Published in the December 2007 Idaho Board of Pharmacy Newsletter

Pharmacies won a six-month delay in the requirement to implement tamper-resistant pads by October 1, 2007, or risk loss of reimbursement from Medicaid. Congress unanimously passed an extension to March 31, 2008, and President George W. Bush signed it into law September 29.
State Medicaid directors and state boards of pharmacy are using the delay to educate prescribers and pharmacists about the requirement.
The Idaho Board of Pharmacy has established that noncopyable prescription blanks currently being required by the Board for CS prescriptions meet the necessary one characteristic to be considered tamper resistant by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Beginning October 1, 2008, the tamper-resistant pads required for Medicaid patients must contain all three of the following characteristics to be considered tamper resistant:
one or more industry-recognized features designed to prevent unauthorized copying of a completed or blank prescription form; or
one or more industry-recognized features designed to prevent the erasure or modification of information written on the prescription by the prescriber; or
one or more industry-recognized feature designed to prevent the use of counterfeit prescription forms.