Our senior attorney Aaron Kemp recently spoke at the Michigan State Medical Society conference which focused on the Board of Medicine’s renewal requirements about the legal responsibilities that providers have with balancing pain treatment with their controlled substance prescribing practices. This is a topic that is of particular interest to doctors in Michigan and throughout the country because of how complex the laws surrounding it are.
Much of the legal considerations revolve around the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), which was signed into law in 1970 by President Richard Nixon. It charged the DEA with enforcing the act’s mandates and determining which substances are placed into which schedules. While those schedules have been updated over time and the CSA’s scope was expanded, all providers must always act in good faith and “in the usual course of professional practice” while issuing prescriptions “for a legitimate medical purpose.”
Aaron went over a variety of case law examples related to CSA, specific red flags and standard of care considerations and provided attendees with reminders that may often be overlooked simply because of a lack of knowledge. For example, providers should know that:
“These are among the most common ways that providers violate this law,” Kemp says. “Even though there may be good intentions, the lack of knowledge is not a legal excuse.”
The 2018 revisions to the Public Health Code regarding prescribing for acute pain and MAPS reviews were also reviewed in detail to make certain physicians aware of their legal duties which prescribing any controlled substances, not only Schedule II narcotics.
Finally, best practices for medical record keeping related to patient evaluation, treatment plans, informed consent agreement and additional components of a thorough and complete patient record were reviewed. Fortunately, Aaron and the experienced team of healthcare defense attorneys at Chapman Law Group can help physicians who have questions about the CSA, the Michigan Public Health Code and legal issues related to prescribing controlled substances for pain.
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