Tamper-Resistant Prescription Pad Law Delayed Until April 1

Wilmer, Dayton, Ohio, is reminding distributors that a federal law originally scheduled to go into effect Oct. 1 mandating all written, non-electronic prescriptions for Medicaid recipients be written on tamper-resistant pads, has been delayed by six months. Congressional members approved the measure delaying implementation on Sept. 27, and set April 1 as the new date to comply with the law.

In order to qualify for reimbursement by the federal government, characteristics of compliant prescription pads include:

• The prevention of unauthorized copying of a completed or blank prescription form

• The prevention of erasure or modification of information written on the prescription by the prescriber

• The prevention of use of counterfeit prescription forms

Wilmer offers tamper-resistant prescription pads which meet Medicaid requirements through the following eight security features:

• Heat sensitive Rx thermochromic ink

• Chemical protection paper

• Watermark back

• Micro print

• Blue or green background

• Void pantograph

• Reverse Rx

• Pre-printed prescriber information

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is requiring that only one of the three characteristics for tamper-resistant prescription pads be met by April 1, 2008, with all three characteristics met by October 1, 2008.

For more information, contact the Wilmer Prescription Pad team at (800) 494-5637, ext 5 or visit www.4wilmer.com.