Cecilia Baer
Sales & Education Director
The Prescription (Drug) Monitoring Program (PMP/PDMP) mandates reporting requirements for practitioners dispensing controlled substances. Established primarily to monitor and prevent misuse and abuse of these drugs, PMP are crucial in every state for ensuring public health and safety. These programs promote accurate and timely reporting, which is essential in ensuring prescriptions are correctly delivered to intended recipients and preventing illegal activities like “doctor shopping.”
PMP have become increasingly significant in recent times. While the implementation details of PMP might vary from state to state, the core objective remains consistent: to monitor controlled substance use and prevent misuse. Veterinarians have a vital role to play in keeping the PMP databases updated and effective, even though their patients are animals. In states where PMP are mandatory, non-compliance, such as failure to report, could lead to disciplinary actions, fines, or even revocation of veterinary licenses.
What are your PMP reporting requirements?
The requirements for PMP reporting differ from state to state. In jurisdictions where veterinarians are required to report dispensed controlled substances, practitioners must document and report detailed information related to the medication, dispenser, patient, client, dosage, and potentially more. Some states mandate reporting even when no controlled substances are dispensed, known as “zero reports”.
States continually reassess the necessity for veterinarians to participate in PMP reporting. There are also established thresholds for dispensing controlled drugs, including minimum day’s supply and reporting frequency, which practitioners should verify if dispensing or considering dispensing these medications. The best and recommended method is to start doing research yourself with your state resources.
VetSnap provides consolidated information based on our internal research. This includes state specific website links as well as requirements for veterinary reporting, though you should verify these results with your state board as regulations can change.
Get PMP rules overview for all 50 states with links to state websites and data submission guides:
Navigating through your state’s Prescription Monitoring Program (PMP) portal for report submissions is no small feat. It demands careful manual data entry for each dispensed prescription, a process that is as tedious as it is time-consuming, particularly when handling multiple prescriptions.
Meet VetSnap’s PMP Assistant — your ally in simplifying PMP reporting. Crafted with veterinary hospitals in mind, our tool seamlessly melds with your controlled substance logging procedures. It efficiently converts hours of monotonous work into a streamlined, hassle-free process, utilizing data you already possess.
Here’s how it functions: PMP Assistant empowers you to customize reporting templates that are customized to your state’s regulations and your hospital’s specific needs. Once done, you can either manually or automatically start tagging specific drugs as you create their controlled log record. The system then helps you compile the necessary details for the dispensed medication.
You also have the ability to effortlessly track, organize, and review your pending PMP submissions through a straightforward list view. With just a click, this transforms into a ready-to-submit file that can be uploaded in under a minute to the same portal where currently you manually input PMP data. With VetSnap, you’re not merely meeting compliance standards — you’re doing it efficiently and accurately, saying farewell to the cumbersome process of manual reporting. Experience the ease and accuracy of VetSnap’s PMP Assistant.
It is understandable. As states have made the process of PMP reporting harder for veterinarians to comply with, many practices have chosen to limit or eliminate altogether dispensing controlled substances.
The fact is, in some situations the cost to hospitals for buying the controlled medication for dispensing may be less than the cost of compliance, making it financially and operationally a challenge. So, many hospitals in states with mandatory reporting for dispensing controlled drugs have chosen to prescribe out rather than keep medication on hand.
Speaking with staff that prescribe controlled drugs rather than dispense, it’s clear also that prescribing while on the surface is simpler, can end up costing your hospital time, not to mention missed revenue. Prescribing out controlled drugs may take time on the phone talking with multiple pharmacies, in order to make sure the order is filled correctly and on time.
With VetSnap PMP Assistant, you can make sure that your reporting is done completely and on time, and also saves you up to 90% of the time it currently takes to manually report. This easy to learn and use tool, makes dispensing possible again for many hospitals that want to but shy away from it due to the compliance overhead.
Dispensing within practice not only increases your revenue, but also adds the peace of mind for your staff that the patient is taken care of on site with all their controlled drug medication ready to go without a second stop at a pharmacy.
Regulations regarding dispensing limitations can vary based on state law as well as federal regulations. It is advised to reference CFR Title 21 Chapter 2 to ensure federal compliance, but also reach out to state departments to ensure compliance with state level regulations as they may differ from federal regulations.
VetSnap PMP Assistant is your smart, automated, and guided tool that helps you simplify PMP reporting. The reports generated by PMP Assistant are compatible with your state’s reporting platform, and have some error checking processes built in to ensure your submission isn’t kicked back with some common basic mistakes. However, you, as the staff of the hospital, are still responsible for ensuring reports that are being put together are accurate and submitted to your state’s portal in a timely manner.
