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JotPsych Notes
JotPsych Notes

How to run and record the PDMP check your state requires

Federal law has each state require a check before a Medicaid patient's Schedule II prescription. Mark PDMP reviewed in the visit note only after the check.

Marcus Irven
Marcus Irven
Head of Engineering, JotPsych

You're renewing a patient's stimulant or benzodiazepine. The prescription is ready to send, and you haven't signed the visit note yet.

  1. Find the law behind your state's PDMP check. The PDMP Training and Technical Assistance Center lists the laws that require a check in each state, as of October 29, 2025. The list gives each law's citation, not a summary. Open your state's law, and read what it says about each of the conditions state laws differ on.
What to read in your state's law on PDMP checks
the conditions that make a check required, and how state laws differ on each
Your state's law
ConditionHow state laws differ
Which drugsOpioids only, or any controlled substance
Which prescriptionsThe first one only, or every one
How often after thatEach time, or at set intervals, such as every 90 days
How large a supply or doseMore than a 3- or 7-day supply, or more than a set level of morphine milligram equivalents (MME)
What role your judgment playsWhen you suspect misuse, or at your discretion
Who must checkEvery prescriber, or only some, such as prescribers in pain clinics

The PDMP Training and Technical Assistance Center sorted state laws on required checks by these conditions in July 2020. The center found no two states' laws exactly alike.

  1. Check before a Medicaid patient's Schedule II prescription. Since October 1, 2021, federal law has required each state to make its Medicaid prescribers check the PDMP before prescribing a Schedule II drug to a Medicaid patient. Your state sets the timing and the form of the check, and it can add Schedule III and IV drugs.
  2. Run the check before you send the prescription. Look up your patient in your state's PDMP, and read recent fills. Can't reach the PDMP? Write your attempt and the reason in the visit note, since federal Medicaid law has your state require that record for a Medicaid patient. Your two-factor signature on each controlled prescription doesn't show a PDMP check.
What to write in the visit note when you can't complete a PDMP check
two lines for the note; fill each bracket
Note lines

PDMP check attempted: [date and time]

Not completed because: [reason, such as the state PDMP site was down]

The two lines follow the federal Medicaid rule in Title 42 of the U.S. Code, section 1396w-3a. Under that section, your state can require you to submit the record on request.

  1. Mark PDMP reviewed only after the check. Select Sign Note to open the final-review panel. Opening the panel doesn't sign or complete the note. On a note linked to your patient, Attestations lists PDMP reviewed. Mark it. Then select the final Sign Note button at the bottom of the panel. Practices without electronic signatures see Complete Note in both places.

In JotPsych, the final-review panel lists PDMP reviewed, and your mark applies to the visit whose note you're signing.

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Sources:
  1. PDMP Training and Technical Assistance Center, Listing of Mandatory Query Conditions, each state's laws that require a PDMP check, by citation, October 29, 2025, read October 2, 2026.
  2. PDMP Training and Technical Assistance Center, Mandatory Enrollment and Use of PDMPs, July 10, 2020, read October 2, 2026.
  3. United States Code, 42 U.S.C. 1396w-3a, requirements relating to qualified prescription drug monitoring programs and prescribing certain controlled substances, Cornell Legal Information Institute, read October 2, 2026.
  4. DEA, 21 CFR 1311.140, signing a controlled substance prescription, read October 2, 2026.