On Monday, November 19, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) amended "its regulations to allow practitioners to provide individual patients with multiple prescriptions, to be filled sequentially, for the same schedule II controlled substance, with such multiple prescriptions having the combined effect of allowing a patient to receive over time up to a 90-day supply of that controlled substance."

The Final Rule to amend the DEA's regulations of Schedule II drugs will give patients better access to the prescription drugs they need and continue to minimize the risks controlled substances pose to public health and safety. Physicians need the oversight and ability to write stable patients a reasonable amount of prescriptions that contain directions for dispensing controlled substances on future specified dates. The Final Rule will allow physicians to continue this well-established clinical practice and decrease the likelihood that patients will run out of drugs that provide critical relief from moderate to severe chronic pain.

The AMA has worked hard to encourage the DEA to take action on this issue and address the needs of chronically ill patients. Click here to view a copy of the DEA's Final Rule.

Back to News Headlines