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Medicare Regulations on Cii Prescriptions

Medicare regulations on CII Prescriptions appear in the Code of Federal Regulations, which are official rules and regulations promulgated by the executive department and other federal agencies. The Code contains 50 chapters, with each chapter stratified by department or agency. Chapter 21 contains Medicare regulations, or regulations of the Department of Health and Human Services.

  1. Multiple Prescriptions

    • Code Section 21 CFR 1306.12(b) allows physicians to write multiple prescriptions for CII drugs, which contain controlled substances, for up to 90 days for patients confined to a long-term care facility and those diagnosed with a terminal illness. This is a dramatic change from when Cll drug prescriptions were limited to one month at a time.

    Multiple Refills

    • In another deviation from past practices, Code Section 21 CFR 1306.13 allows pharmacists to separate a prescription for a controlled substance to smaller quantities and allocate them to patients separately over a 60-day period. Under this change, patience can access at least some of their CII drug prescription even when they do not have sufficient financial resources to fill the entire prescription. However, the pharmacist must notate on the prescription whether the patient is in a long-term care facility or terminally ill.

    Computer Systems

    • If the pharmacist maintains prescriptions in a database, then recorded prescriptions must include the original prescription information as well as the the name of the long term care facility, address and other pertinent data. In addition, Code Section 21 CFR 1306 requires that all prescriptions must include a notation indicating whether the patient is either in a long term care facility or terminally ill.

    Fax Prescriptions

    • Previously, pharmacists could not fill faxed prescriptions for CII drugs. However, that prohibition has been lifted by Code Section 21 CFR 1306.11(e)(f)&(g) lists this prohibition by allowing faxed prescriptions exclusively for patients undergoing intravenous pain therapy at home or those in a long term care facility or hospice program.

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