On March 24th the Office of the Federal Register made available for public inspection an Interim Final Rule with Request for Comments from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Department of Justice on Electronic Prescribing of Controlled Substances.  The Interim Final Rule specifies the rules that health care providers will need to follow in order to electronically prescribe controlled substances in accordance with the law.  Since DEA published the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for electronic prescribing of controlled substance, ONC, CMS, AHRQ and other HHS staff have worked closely with DEA to develop the policies in the Interim Final Rule.

The Interim Final Rule is expected to be published in the Federal Register on Wednesday, March 31 and will include a 60 day comment period.

To view the Interim Final Rules go to:  http://www.federalregister.gov/inspection.aspx#spec_D