All practitioners who are registered with the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), except for practitioners who are solely veterinarians. This includes MDs, DOs, DDSs, DMDs, APRNs, ODs, and others who hold DEA prescriber registrations.
Under the MATE Act, DEA-registered physicians, dentists, and practitioners must have a total of 8 hours of training on the diagnosis, treatment, and management of patients with opioid or other substance use disorders. This training can be obtained by courses such as the CCO DEA course.
The cost for the course is $299. A discount may be provided for your institution. Please reach out to deainfo@clinicaloptions.com. This course covers all 8 hours of the requirement.
Yes! You can claim up to 8 hours of credit by taking the CCO course to meet the DEA requirements for education on the management of patients with opioid or other substance abuse disorders.
The deadline for satisfying this new training requirement is the date of a practitioner's next scheduled DEA registration submission—regardless of whether it is an initial registration or a renewal registration—on or after June 27, 2023, for the next 3 years.
Beginning on June 27, 2023, practitioners will be required to check a box on their online DEA registration form—regardless of whether a registrant is completing their initial registration application or renewing their registration—affirming that they have completed the new training requirement.
DEA registrations are for 3 years. If you plan to obtain or renew your DEA license sometime between June 27, 2023, and June 26, 2026, you will need to have 8 hours of training on the treatment and management of patients with opioid or other substance abuse disorders.
All practitioners who graduated in good standing from a medical (allopathic or osteopathic), dental, PA, or advanced practice nursing school in the United States within 5 years of June 27, 2023, and successfully completed a comprehensive curriculum that included at least 8 hours of training on treating and managing patients with opioid or other substance use disorders, including the appropriate clinical use of all drugs approved by the FDA for the treatment of a substance use disorder, or safe pharmacologic management of dental pain and screening, brief intervention, and referral for appropriate treatment of patients with or at risk of developing opioid and other substance use disorders.
Check with your professional school to provide documentation of completion of this requirement. Documentation of your participation may be required if you are ever inspected or audited.
The medical school “exemption” applies only to those who graduated from a school within the United States. All foreign medical school graduates are required to take courses to fulfill this requirement.
Yes. Past DATA-waived training counts toward a DEA registrant's 8-hour training requirement.
All practitioners who are board certified in addiction medicine or addiction psychiatry from the American Board of Medical Specialties, the American Board of Addiction Medicine, or the American Osteopathic Association are deemed to have satisfied this training.
All DEA registrants irrespective of whether they actively prescribe opioids must meet this 8-hour training requirement and be prepared to show completion if ever inspected or audited.
It depends. Practitioners must meet the requirements only if they hold a DEA prescribers' certificate. If you have a DEA certificate, this requirement applies to you, regardless of your prescribing history or intention.
Yes. You can count your state-required courses toward this requirement. It is important to consider that the MATE Act focuses on courses on substance abuse disorder, and you must have the hours you claim addressing substance abuse disorder. Also, you will need a copy of the hours certificate available in the event you are subject to a DEA audit or inspection.
According to the DEA, past training on the treatment and management of patients with opioid or other substance use disorders can count toward a practitioner meeting this requirement. In other words, if you received relevant training (from one of the groups authorized to provide training) prior to the enactment of this new training obligation on December 29, 2022, that training can count toward the 8-hour requirement.
No. Although you can count 1 year of courses toward this requirement, it was not the intention of Congress for DEA registrants to count the same course taken multiple times. Instead, the intent was that prescribers have education on substance abuse disorders and how to diagnose and refer those patients to the appropriate healthcare professional. Remember, you didn't receive your medical degree by taking the same course over and over again! It is recommended that you complete one 8-hour course vs multiple separate courses.
The requirements are the same regardless of where you hold your license. If you hold licenses in multiple states, you must complete the 8-hour substance abuse education requirement 1 time. It is important that you keep documentation of your course participation.
This is unclear, as the DEA has not made it clear how far back you can count a course. The DEA has said, however, that those who have graduated from a US-based medical school in the past 5 years with a curriculum on substance abuse and pain management would be able to count that education toward this requirement. Therefore, in the interest of safety, we suggest courses from no more than 5 years ago as the limit, but this is subject to change if additional guidance comes out from the DEA.
No. You don't have to complete the course all at once. It can be cumulative across multiple sessions, as long as it totals 8 hours of training on opioid or other substance abuse disorders. The CCO DEA course includes slides, audio, and text modules that allow you to take the course at your own pace.
No. Training can occur in various formats, including classroom settings, seminars at professional society meetings, or virtual offerings. The CCO DEA course is on-demand and can be taken anytime, at your own pace. In-person training is available to organizations that meet our criteria. Please reach out to us for more information.
To comply with the DEA requirements, you must attest to your completion of 8 hours of training on opioid or other substance abuse disorders. You will do this by checking a box during your application or reapplication process. Know that if you submit false attestation to the DEA, you could face stiff penalties, including the following warning from the DEA website: 21 USC 843(d), states that any person who knowingly or intentionally furnishes false or fraudulent information in the application is subject to a term of imprisonment of not more than 4 years, and a fine under Title 18 of not more than $250,000, or both.
According to the DEA, prescribers may be asked to show documentation in the form of a certificate that the education was taken in advance of their DEA registration.
DEA recommends that license holders keep their documentation confirming course completion for the 8-hour requirement for courses on opioid and other substance abuse disorders. The documentation should be kept readily available in the event of an audit. It would be prudent to keep your records for at least the period of your current DEA registration.
It depends. If you have records showing that you completed courses on opioid or other substance abuse disorders and have copies of those certificates, you may be able to claim those for meeting the requirement. If you don't have documentation or those were many years in the past, it would be helpful for your patients for you to be up to date on substance abuse treatments, as those are continually updated. Chances are you may still need additional credits. The CCO DEA course allows you the flexibility of taking those hours that you still may need for the DEA 8-hour requirement.
Per the MATE Act, this is a 1-time requirement for all DEA registrants for the next 3 years, starting June 27, 2023, based on your DEA registration renewal date.
Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurance all have reimbursement codes for Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) for substance abuse disorders. The time spent directly with the patient to review their questionnaire and discuss referral and treatment options can be billed. In the “Overview of Substance Abuse” module of the CCO DEA course, we cover this information and provide you with codes you can use in your practice.
You can take the class as a group. However, to receive “credit” for a course taken online, individuals must be registered separately to receive the course completion certificate.
You can count those hours from the state requirement. The CCO DEA course is flexible in that you can claim up to 8 hours of credit, but you are able to claim less. We highly recommend that if you have met the state-required pain or controlled substance courses, you take the portion of our course on substance abuse disorders. Chances are you still may need additional credits. The CCO DEA course allows you the flexibility of taking those hours that you still may need for the DEA 8-hour requirement.
The CCO DEA course has been submitted to 21 specialty boards for MOC credit.
Yes. Completion of this accredited CME activity meets the expectations of an Accredited Safety or Quality Improvement Program (IA_PSPA_28) for the Merit-based Incentive Payment Program (MIPS).
An example of an activity that could satisfy this is an accredited continuing medical education program related to opioid analgesic Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies (REMS) to address pain control (ie, acute and chronic pain).
Depending on the state, we went to great lengths to meet most state requirements. Some states have a specific PDMP and other learning requirements not covered in the course. For Tennessee, we will include a state-required module in the coming weeks.
With the United States facing a major addiction crisis, the congressional members who sponsored the MATE Act see educating healthcare professionals on substance abuse disorder as a possible solution.
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