DEA license requirements plague doctors

A June deadline from the Biden Administration demanding that medical doctors who prescribe opioids qualify for a DEA license to do so by taking 8 hours of training has drawn critical comments from the many doctors affected:

So if I understand this correctly, the new requirement applies to DEA registrants who did not obtain the “X” waiver (as I did more than 15 years ago) or are not certified in addiction medicine. – William F Cox MD

I have to have a DEA license for my telehealth job, in which I’m not even allowed to prescribe Sudafed or Phenergan. Yet I have to spend 8 hours on this BS. – L Knight MD

Big Pharma, organized Medicine calling pain the fifth vital sign, quality measures being introduced threatening docs for not prescribing for controlling pain, local law enforcement moonlighting as security at pill mills and politicians ignoring complaints of citizens about out of state vehicles driving through their communities to pill mills the same time each week to stock up and it’s doctors’ fault we have an opioid crisis? – Steve Reznick

Incredible. Of note, 11 of the 28 “free” courses on the AMA website are actually free. – Sunset MD

Another waste of time and money. Most of the drugs that are being abused and causing fatal overdoses are illegal and are not being prescribed by anyone. – Dr. Whatnow

Makes a lot of sense for a dermatologist wasting their time taking a class on substance abuse. – BMS

State licensure has required courses for renewals. Now the MBAs and legislative committees who have no experience in the real world are making new rules. – SRB

More uncompensated time. – Dan Smith

Let’s see how many hours we can suck out of a caring MD…THE financial guys already have them on a mandatory treadmill of x patients per x minutes … God help the cancer patients, postsurgical patients, fibro patients … why is it that I feel somehow street drugs will become your grandmother’s recourse…better stock up on narcan…. – kat sheetz rn bsn

How about physicians demanding President Biden and the politicians take courses on Laws and the Constitution (just a refresher and update) to make sure they’re current with the laws and current events? This way the constituents will know they can pass laws effectively and put the dollars for these “required” courses back into the coffers of the homeless and un-and underinsured. – BarbW38

Shows you how out of touch the edict makers are. So we have to do 20-25 modules of garbage every year on Healthstream. Then more garbage to renew licenses. Now the DEA. Have to pay friends of these people to take the modules. They need to be offered “free” which means our licensing fees go to “friends and family” who get the contracts to provide this learning. Meanwhile in the trenches I dread to renew narcotics every month for cancer patients because it is so onerous and time consuming. Care is fractured and everyone and every state operates in a silo. That is the dangerous problem. – D shields