Resources & Information

The latest episode of NCMB's podcast, MedBoard Matters, explores the provision of the STOP Act that requires mandatory use of the state's Controlled Substances Reporting System before writing a new prescription for a Schedule II or Schedule III opioid or narcotic.

Mandatory use goes into effect on July 7, 2021. The episode discusses the basics of the requirement and gives some history on NC CSRS. Host Jean Fisher Brinkley also talks with Stephanie Johnson, Manager of NC CSRS's Utilization Project, about what prescribers can do to get up to speed using the prescription drug database to check patient histories and improve patient care.

Listen now.

The specific requirements of the "mandatory use" provision are as follows:

Prior to prescribing a Schedule II or Schedule III opioid or narcotic, practitioners are required to review a patient’s 12-month prescription history in the NC CSRS. For every subsequent three-month period that the Schedule II or Schedule III opioid or narcotic remains part of the patient’s medical care, practitioners are required to review the patient’s 12-month history in the NC CSRS.

Reviews should be documented within the patient’s medical record along with any electrical or technological failure that prevents such review. Prescribers are required to review the history and document the review once the electrical or technological failure has resolved.

Certain practitioners may, but are not required to, review the NC CSRS prior to prescribing a targeted controlled substance to a patient in any of the following circumstances:

• Controlled substances administered in a health care setting, hospital, nursing home, outpatient dialysis facility or residential care facility.

• Controlled substances prescribed for the treatment of cancer or another condition associated with cancer.

• Controlled substances prescribed to patients in hospice care or palliative care.