DEA tweaks partial Rx fill paperwork—yawn, pharmacies take note
Published Date: 10/1/2026
Notice
Summary
The DEA is updating how pharmacies keep records for partial prescription fills. This affects pharmacies and healthcare providers who must track these partial fills more clearly. Comments on the changes are open until November 2, 2026, and the update aims to make recordkeeping easier without adding extra costs or hassle.
Analyzed Economic Effects
2 provisions identified: 1 benefits, 1 costs, 0 mixed.
Pharmacies must record partial Schedule II fills
If you operate a pharmacy or are a DEA registrant, you must keep records of partial fills of Schedule II prescriptions under the DEA’s recordkeeping collection titled "Recordkeeping Requirements for Partial Fills of Prescriptions for Schedule II Controlled Substances." The DEA estimates 66,088 registrants will make a total of 9,773,582 partial-fill records annually (about 147.8874 records per registrant per year), with an estimated time per record of 0.002778 hours (about 10 seconds) and a total annual burden of 27,149 hours.
No additional monetary cost for recordkeeping
The DEA estimates the total annual other (non-time) cost burden for this collection is $0, meaning the agency is not expecting registrants to incur additional monetary costs for complying with the partial-fill recordkeeping requirements during the covered period.
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