Prescription Authority Question

[notyetnever]

Hello,

Does anyone have information for prescription authority of medical assistants in NC? My situation at a family medicine practice is that our supervising physician authorized an MA to send refills on behalf of the APPs/mid-levels. However, we were never told about this. The MA was under the impression that we were aware and okay with this happening. I would guess each practitioner has to give the "okay" for the MA to refill prescriptions, right? Or is there some way the supervising physician can override this? The medications are still being filled on behalf of the mid-levels with our names on the scripts/medications. Is this more of a legal issue or ethical/workplace issue?

Thank you

Edited August 13, 2020 by notyetnever
added tags

[DizzyJ]

I'm not in NC, but two things...

1. Please stop using the term mid-level...not sure if you haven't heard, but nobody uses that term any more and it is degrading. 

2. Nobody can call in a prescription under your name without your knowledge/approval.  An MA/office personnel can call in a prescription on your behalf, given you gave approval for this and you provided the medication, dose, siq, quantity.  Some providers/offices allow for an algorithmic approach to refill medications based on last visit, type of medication, next visit, etc...This helps cut down on bothering you for things you would generally automatically approve.  You should have 100% control over when an RX can be refilled under your name without direct approval.  The SP can not override when your credentials are being used to refill an RX.  He can authorize a refill of a med you prescribed,  but it should then be put under his/her name.