A STOP Act requirement to check the NC Controlled Substances Reporting System (NC CSRS) before prescribing certain controlled substances will be in effect as of July 7, NCMB has been advised by the NC Department of Health and Human Services (NC DHHS). Review medication subject to mandatory use here.
NC DHHS notified the state Revisor of Statutes on June 7 that all technical upgrades necessary to allow this provision of law to go into effect had been completed. The STOP Act of 2017 specifies that the “mandatory use” provision will be in effect 30 days after the date of such notification.
Physicians, physician assistants and other controlled substances prescribers who are not already registered and using NC CSRS should register now to ensure they are in compliance by July 7.
NCMB will share more information about this requirement as it becomes available.
The specific requirements of the “mandatory use” provision are as follows:
Prior to prescribing a Schedule II or Schedule III opioid, 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 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.
