Physician advocacy leads to DEA policy reversal

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has announced that it will reverse a planned policy change that would have ended the grace period for registrants to renew their existing registration number for prescribing of controlled substances. Under the proposed policy change, registrants who failed to renew before their registration number’s expiration date would have had to file for an entirely new DEA number. As well, the policy would have reduced the number of reminders sent by the DEA leading up to expiration from three down to one, and eliminated email reminders altogether. That policy was scheduled to take effect on Jan. 1, 2017.

The AOA immediately responded by contacting the DEA, White House and Department of Health and Human Services to advocate against this sudden and unprecedented change in policy. As a result, on Wednesday morning the DEA announced that it will maintain its longstanding policy of providing a one-month grace period for registrants to reinstate an existing DEA registration. Additionally, the DEA will provide a second renewal reminder via email.

The AOA will continue to work with the DEA to gain clarification on the policy reversal to ensure that osteopathic physicians are aware of their registration renewal policies and procedures. We encourage all physicians to maintain an active DEA registration and state medical license through timely renewal, and to ensure their email and mail contact information with the agency is up to date. Please note that regardless of whether a registration is reinstated within the calendar month after expiration, federal law prohibits the handling of controlled substances or List 1 chemicals for any period of time under an expired registration.