Changes to renewing DEA registration for physicians

Update: After this blog item was originally posted, the DEA announced that it had reversed its decisions to eliminate a second registration renewal notice to prescribing physicians and eliminate the grace period for renewals after Jan. 1. Instead, the DEA said it would retain its current policies and procedures for renewing DEA registration although registrants will now receive the second renewal notification at the email address associated with their registration instead of through the mail.

There are many moving parts to practicing as a family physician and one of those is being able to prescribe needed medications for your patients. That depends on having a valid, current registration with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

The DEA recently announced significant changes to its registration renewal process. Effective Jan. 1, the DEA is eliminating the informal grace period that the agency had previously allowed for registrants to renew their registrations. The DEA will send only one renewal notice to each registrant’s “mail to” address approximately 65 days before the expiration date; DEA will provide no other reminders to renew the DEA registration.

The DEA also advises that physicians who fail to file a renewal application by midnight Eastern Standard Time of the expiration date will have their DEA number “retired” and have to apply for a new one. The agency also says after the expiration date physicians won’t be able to renew a DEA registration online and the DEA won’t accept paper renewal applications.

– Kent Moore, Senior Strategist for Physician Payment for the American Academy of Family Physicians