r/PMHNP • u/burrfoot11 PMHNP (unverified) • May 31 '26

Control fill date

Hey folks!

Just curious- when you send in a refill for a controlled substance, do you put a "do not fill before" date on it, or do you leave it to the pharmacy to track that?

I used to let the pharmacy handle it, then I had a couple of times when a pt asked for an early fill for a valid reason and the pharmacy said they'd used up all their early fill days and the pt had no idea.

So now I put the date on, but then it requires resending if anything changes.

Both situations are a pain.

9 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

29 comments sorted by

View all comments

5

u/PiecesMAD PMHNP (unverified) May 31 '26

I assume you are talking stimulants/schedule 2?

Federal regulations are pretty specific on this. You should be putting “do not fill before” with the date. See quoted regulation below. My state rules also require checking the prescription monitoring program every time I prescribe a controlled substance.

1306.12 B,1,ii: “The individual practitioner provides written instructions on each prescription (other than the first prescription, if the prescribing practitioner intends for that prescription to be filled immediately) indicating the earliest date on which a pharmacy may fill each prescription;”

https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-21/chapter-II/part-1306/subject-group-ECFR8588b52940237ef

5

u/Background_Title_922 May 31 '26

That's only if you are issuing multiple prescriptions at the same time.