Effective January 1, 2022, Senate Bill 0166 (CH0299)/House Bill 0512 (CH0230) (2020) Drugs and Devices – Electronic Prescriptions – Controlled Dangerous Substances requires licensed health care providers to electronically prescribe prescriptions for controlled dangerous substances. The Health General Article, 21-220(C) provides exceptions to this requirement, and the requirement to request a waiver. A health care practitioner who is unable to electronically transmit prescriptions for controlled dangerous substance drugs may request a waiver from the electronic prescribing requirement under certain circumstances. A waiver, if granted, may not exceed one year.
The effective date of the state law aligned with the comparable federal law (Section 2003 of the SUPPORT Act). In December 2020, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) implemented the first phase of this mandate by naming the standard that prescribers must use for e-prescribing transmissions and delaying compliance actions until January 1, 2022.
On November 2, 2021, CMS announced they are delaying the start date for compliance actions to January 1, 2023, in response to stakeholder feedback. In order to maintain alignment with the federal government, MDH is also delaying compliance actions to January 1, 2023
To view existing electronic prescribing waiver recipients, visit the Online Waiver Verification page.
