While the Drug Enforcement Administration has finally proposed a rule allowing e-prescribing for controlled drugs, everyone involved will be required to comply with a boatload of regulations if they want to participate. The rules, which allow physicians to e-prescribe drugs like OxyContin and Vicodin, impose new regulations on doctors, hospitals and pharmacies that want to participate. Not only would doctors have to register in person with law-enforcement officials, but they'd also have to allow routine audits of their prescription records. Pharmacists, meanwhile, would have to verify weekly that doctors doing the prescribing remain licensed and in good standing, keep digital records of the controlled drug e-prescriptions and notify the DEA within 24 hours if a security violation occurs.

The DEA's rules are still in draft form for the time being, however. At the moment, federal rules now ban the e-prescription of controlled drugs, which make up about 10 percent of all prescriptions written by doctors.

To learn more about the rules:
- read this Modern Healthcare article (reg. req.)

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