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Opioid Awareness Requirement for CME

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Explanation of Requirement

Podiatrists renewing registration with the DEA after June 27, 2023, must satisfy a one-time 8-hour requirement of CME related to the treatment and management of patients with opioid or other substance use disorders before renewing their DEA controlled substance registration.

This requirement is a result of federal Omnibus legislation passed in December 2022 and is called the Medication Access and Training Expansion (MATE) Act.

Approved Content Providers

According to the MATE Act, CME to meet the requirement must come from providers approved by the DEA. The list of approved organizations can be found on the DEA Q&A page.

In the original bill, the DEA failed to mention podiatrists and left the APMA off from its list of approved providers. The APMA has addressed this with DEA with the passage of HR 2483 at the federal level and APMA is now an approved provider. The DEA has not added APMA to the list of approved providers on their site, but they are in fact approved. For podiatrists licensed in Texas, this was not a major issue because TDLR accepts CME related to podiatry from several sources approved by the DEA.

Under TDLR’s Podiatry rule 130.44, podiatrists have many options for CME in order to comply:

(f) A licensee shall receive credit for each hour of training for non-podiatric medical sponsored meetings that are relative to podiatric medicine and department approved. The department may assign credit for hospital grand rounds, hospital CME programs, corporate sponsored meetings, and meetings sponsored by the American Medical Association, the orthopedic community, the American Diabetes Association, the Nursing Association, the Physical Therapy Association, and others if approved.

For the purposes of this CME requirement, the sources of CME in the MATE document that are not already listed in our podiatric rules are approved for compliance with this 8-hour opioid educational requirement. Additional DEA CME resources are courses approved by the Accreditation Council on Continuing Medical Education (ACCME). A scan of ACCME’s website showed over 1600 providers nationally accredited directly or accredited by an organization recognized and approved as a CME provider by ACCME. For example, hospital and university systems in Texas are listed. These would be approved by DEA and do fall under TDLR’s rules as CME providers.

Crossover TDLR CME Credit

Additionally, courses taken prior to December 31, 2022 supplied by providers listed on the DEA document will count toward DEA’s eight-hour requirement.

The eight-hour requirement can be completed incrementally, in person or online. Since podiatrists have been required to take opioid awareness courses for several years now, from providers that are possibly listed in the ACCME database or other listed entity, you may have already complied.

Frequently Asked Questions

What exactly is required when I renew my registration with DEA?

Podiatrists renewing their registration with DEA will check a box attesting that they have taken the required eight hours of Opioid related CME sometime prior to their renewal.

Is this required to renew my Texas Podiatry License?

No. This is a federal requirement if you prescribe controlled substances. Texas rules require 1 hour of CME related to opioids or pain management per renewal period if you prescribe or dispense controlled substances. Initial licensees must complete two hours in their first year of licensure. TAC 130.44

Will these courses count toward my Texas CME requirements for renewal?

Yes.

Will recent graduates need to do this?

No. Podiatrists will be added to the Group 2 school list in the updated DEA bulletin. This will affirm that Podiatrists graduating within 5 years of June 27, 2023 will not need to take any extra CME to comply.

Approved courses may be found via the following links: