New Compliance Requirement For Controlled Substance Providers

Background: Sec. 1263 of the spending bill Congress passed in December 2022 requires controlled substance prescribers to complete 8 hours of one-time training on safe controlled substance prescribing as a condition of receiving or renewing a DEA registration. The statutory language was taken from a separate bill, called the Medication Access and Training Expansion Act (or MATE Act).

The requirement applies to all DEA registration submissions (Schedules II, III, IV, and V)—regardless of whether it is an initial registration or a renewal registration—beginning on or after June 27, 2023.

At the time of your next scheduled DEA registration submission (but not before June 27, 2023), registrants must:

  • Have completed eight total hours of qualified training on safe controlled substance prescribing, with certificates of completion.
  • Course training must cover some aspect of the safe pharmacological management of dental pain and screening, brief intervention, and referral for appropriate treatment of patients with or at risk of developing opioid and other substance use disorders.
  • Check a box on their registration submission affirming they have completed the training.
  • Retain copies of all certificates of completion.

Past trainings from designated training organizations can count towards a practitioner meeting this requirement. In other words, if you received an eligible training prior to the enactment of this new requirement on December 29, 2022—that training counts towards the eight-hour requirement. Note that the law permits relevant dental school coursework to count toward the training requirement for those who are less than five years out of dental school.

More Information based on details currently available may be found in this ADA FAQ (updated September 2023).

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View the list of webinar links here.