Once the DEA's legal office has given the green light to a state's TPA law, optometrists in that state can register just like any other prescriber for a 3-year period at a cost of $210.
They should willingly absorb the related costs in the same manner that they comply with and pay for the varied requirements of maintaining a professional license to practice as a doctoral-level health care provider. "We wrote to the DEA and they wrote back that it is improper to use the DEA number for insurance purposes," she said.
Apply for a License. The DEA number is intended only to identify them as having the authority to write for a controlled substance." Also, because of the historical trend and data collection conventions that are part of some third-party drug plans, the AOA has registered complaints with the DEA about the misuse of the registration system. Optometrists then receive their DEA number, which begins with an 'm' to identify them as mid-level practitioners. For some optometrists, it seems the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) registration can present a conundrum.First of all, holding a DEA registration is merely “voluntary” and costs providers a fair amount of money for the initial registration and then again every three years upon renewal. The AOA is just one of many health care organizations that has supported the use of NPIs to replace the DEA number for tracking and insurance uses. What We Do.
People may blame DEA, but it gets back to what the state allows optometrists to handle." It recognizes optometrists in a mid-level practitioner category, which includes nurse practitioners, physician's assistants, some pharmacists and some health care providers in nursing homes. Will the insurance company reimburse for the prescription? Pharmacies, third-party payers, manufacturers and others oftentimes require them for various reasons, some legitimate and some not so legitimate.Optometrists need to recognize that they may inadvertently suffer unintended consequences if they do not provide a DEA registration number to their community pharmacies, even when they are prescribing a non-narcotic drug. Mr. Carey agreed, saying, "We're caught in a transition.
Also, if practitioners are tracked through DEA numbers, optometrists without the number will not show up in tracking statistics, depressing the prescribing numbers of the profession. Renew your license early! The Board uses an online platform called BreEZe for all licensing applications, forms and account maintenance.
Laws and Regulations. Darlene Eakin, executive director of the Kentucky Optometric Association (KOA), said the KOA had to go through the DEA to get insurance companies to stop requiring that number for reimbursement claims. From there, Source Informatics uses its database to verify a DEA number and create a unique identifier for its own system to identify a prescriber. Other health plans have been asked to do the same and are working on it, but many only see the need for a dummy number. Optometrists in some states can prescribe controlled substances while those in other states cannot. Get the latest news and education delivered to your inboxGet the latest news and education delivered to your inbox If you are seeking information about obtaining an Optician registration, please click here. Bill Bagwell, RPh, marketing director at Phoenix-based Source Informatics, said his company uses a prescriber's DEA number if one is available, but also supplements that data with its own information-gathering techniques. Call: 1-800-882-9539 (8:30 am-5:50 pm ET) Email: DEA.Registration.Help@usdoj.gov. However, Mr. Carey said the AOA has responded in several ways to help ODs. "This has been on a state-by-state basis as each state gets its scope of practice expanded." (North Dakota granted ODs the ability to prescribe controlled substances in March and is looking into the DEA issue.) "This is one reason we're going back to get narcotics [amplification], so we can get a DEA number.