The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has released guidance through a State Medicaid Director letter providing baseline requirements to states to define and implement tamper-resistant prescription pads as required by law. The law requires that all written, nonelectronic prescriptions for Medicaid outpatient drugs be executed on tamper-resistant pads in order for them to be reimbursable by the federal government. In the letter, CMS clarifies that to be considered tamper resistant on Oct. 1, 2007, a prescription pad must contain at least one of the following characteristics: industry-recognized features designed to prevent unauthorized copying of a completed or blank prescription form, the erasure or modification of information written on the prescription by the prescriber, or the use of counterfeit prescription forms. Beginning Oct. 1, 2008, a prescription pad must contain all three characteristics to be considered tamper-resistant.
The tamper-resistant requirement does not apply when a prescription is communicated by the prescriber to the pharmacy electronically, verbally, or by fax; when a managed care entity pays for the prescription; or in most situations when drugs are provided in designated institutional and clinical settings.
