Why DEA Compliance Matters Even More When Business Slows Down

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Courtney

Education Specialist

06/26/2025

We all know compliance is important. But during slowdowns DEA compliance can quietly shift from “important” to absolutely mission-critical. When margins are tighter and teams are stretched thin, a DEA misstep isn’t just a paperwork problem—it can be the tipping point between staying afloat and going under. And unfortunately, auditors know that too. While DEA enforcement has traditionally focused on human healthcare, there’s a growing shift happening. DEA officials have been signaling increased scrutiny toward veterinary practices—especially as human healthcare has spent considerable efforts to tighten its protocols.

This means that even during slower seasons, your practice can’t afford to ease up on controlled substance protocols. In fact, now is the perfect time to double down and become better prepared. Because let’s face it—no one wants to be caught off guard during an audit when patient visits are already light and budgets are tight.

The current fine for a single DEA infraction exceeds $18,000—and that’s per violation. Logging issues is one of THE biggest sources of fines for most audits. Errors don’t happen in isolation, which means fines often stack fast: one incorrect log entry per container page can become tens of thousands in penalties overnight. Just this year we've seen a veterinary hospital fined over $100,000 in the Northeast, and in some cases, well into the hundreds of thousands when multiple discrepancies, missing records, or potential of diverted drugs are involved.

These headline-making dollar amounts are often the reduced outcomes—negotiated down through costly legal intervention. Without that support, proposed fines can reach into the millions according to our advising experts. And recovering from an audit isn’t just about paying the initial penalty. Practices typically need to bring in compliance consultants, legal advisors, and internal resources to help fix systemic issues which all add up fast. In some cases, there is no recovery phase at all. In 2022, a Massachusetts veterinarian was forced to permanently surrender their license after a DEA investigation. Another in Colorado faced over $200,000 in fines and the same outcome: career-ending loss of licensure.

Diversion is also rarely an isolated incident. Experts find that compliance breakdowns are only the tip of the revenue loss iceberg, it often leads to broader inventory issues—lost medications, inaccurate counts, missed charges, and even misplaced high-value items like diagnostics and vaccines. We’ve seen how a single breakdown can ripple across an entire practice. And in lean times, every dollar (and every ml) matters. Controlled drugs don’t just sit on shelves—they drive the lifeblood of your clinic: surgeries, chronic patient management, and emergency care. And when compliance gets deprioritized or pushed to the back burner, losing access to those medications doesn’t just slow things down—it can bring your entire practice to a screeching halt.

But here’s where we come in. At VetSnap, we’ve worked alongside thousands of practices that once felt overwhelmed by compliance—but no longer do. With VetSnap, you maintain margin, improve patient care, and stay compliant—all without overloading your team.

VetSnap isn’t just a digital logbook. It’s an umbrella of protection—one that covers your recordkeeping, protects your DEA license, and shields your bottom line. When business slows down, it’s the ideal time to reinforce the foundations of your practice. From daily auto-reconciliation and discrepancy detection to state PMP reporting, VetSnap helps your practice maintain airtight compliance, even when staffing is lean and time is short. And with optional integrated hardware solutions, you can lock down access and add an extra layer of protection—all with less manual effort from your team. Because when times are tough, compliance can’t slip through the cracks. In fact, it may just be the smartest investment you make to help position your practice to thrive.

Want to safeguard your practice and protect what you’ve built? Fetch a Demo with our team right away: