I never get bored with law practice. Something new always comes my way. Recently a client had an insurance company deny a certain number of prescriptions because the prescriptions were faxed to him by a company called RxNT. RxNT is probably not the only company doing this, but essentially they contract with doctors to handle their e-prescribing. The doctor apparently e-mails a prescription to RxNT and that company sends a facsimile of the prescription including controlled substances to the pharmacy. This presents a question of legality that I wanted to warn you about. While following this procedure does not present an issue with regard to non-controlled substances, it may be illegal according to DEA regulations when this facsimile is used for controlled substances. CFR Section 1311.170(f) states:
An electronic prescription must be transmitted from the practitioner to the pharmacy in its electronic form. At no time may an intermediary convert an electronic prescription to another form (e.g. facsimile) for transmission. (Emphasis added)
According to feedback, RxNT is quite active in this area and there are other companies doing this. I have contacted the DEA and reported this company’s activities so that they might investigate and hopefully have the company make changes so that pharmacists aren’t hurt. Doctors probably won’t be hurt by this practice, however, a pharmacy will be hurt because an auditing insurance company will have a justification to disallow the prescriptions for controlled substances and cause a potential for a large chargeback.
Clearly, this problem necessitates an emergency meeting with State and Federal authorities, pharmacists, and insurance companies to resolve this issue.
