For Your Practice
Prescribing and Prescription Drug Education
DEA Required Training
Despite significant concerns about unintended consequences that the AMA expressed (PDF) to the U.S. Senate in 2022, the Medication Access and Training Expansion (MATE) Act was included in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 and has now taken effect. The listed CME activities can be taken in any combination to fulfill the eight-hour requirement that applies to DEA-registered physicians. The deadline for physicians to satisfy this new training requirement (PDF) is the date of their next scheduled DEA registration submission—regardless of whether it is an initial registration or a renewal registration.
The following accredited courses are approved to meet the new requirement
and are available at no cost:
- AR PDMP Opioid Training Available (CME)
- AR-IMPACT: Free Pain Management Televideo Conferences
- New England Journal of Medicine Knowledge Center
- PriMed- Pain Management CME/CE Courses
- CDC Addiction Medicine Training Modules
- AMA EdHub – Opioid Therapy & Pain Management CME
The following courses are available for a fee:
- The American Society of Addiction Medicine Treatment of Opioid Use Disorder Course
- The American Academy of Pediatrics Managing Acute and Chronic Pain and Substance Use Disorders in Pediatrics
Substance Use Disorder Resources
- Arkansas Emergency Department Opioid Prescribing
- United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)
- For Patients: Common misunderstandings/miscommunication regarding the law
- The Arkansas legislature has not passed any laws that prohibit your primary care doctor from prescribing pain medication.
- The Arkansas legislature has not passed any laws requiring you to be treated in a pain clinic.
- If your physician has told you these things, please suggest they contact our office (501-224-8967) to receive accurate information on prescribing requirements in Arkansas.
Arkansas Prescription Monitoring Program
In July 2017, Act 820 requires checking the PDMP each time a prescription for Schedule II or III opioid is written and the first time for a benzodiazepine.
The purpose of the AR PDMP is to:
- Enhance patient care by providing prescription monitoring information that will ensure legitimate use of controlled substances in health care, including palliative care, research, and other medical pharmacological uses;
- Help to curtail the misuse and abuse of controlled substances;
- Assist in combating illegal trade in and diversion of controlled substances; and
- Enable access to prescription information by practitioners, law enforcement agents, and other authorized individuals and agencies.
Who has access to the Arkansas Prescription Drug Monitoring Program? By law, the Arkansas Department of Health grants assessments of the AR PDMP database to authorized users such as prescribers (physicians, nurse practitioners, dentists, etc.), pharmacists, delegates of prescribers/pharmacists, professional licensing boards, and certified law enforcement prescription drug diversion investigators.