How does the MRO obtain information for the verification decision?

As the MRO, you must do the following as you make the determinations needed for a verification decision:#

(a)You must conduct a medical interview. You must review the employee's medical history and any other relevant biomedical factors presented to you by the employee. You may direct the employee to undergo further medical evaluation by you or another physician.#

(b)If the employee asserts that the presence of a drug or drug metabolite in his or her specimen results from taking prescription medication (i.e., a legally valid prescription consistent with the Controlled Substances Act), you must review and take all reasonable and necessary steps to verify the authenticity of all medical records the employee provides.#

(1)You may contact the employee's physician or other relevant medical personnel for further information.#

(i)If you decide to contact the employee's pharmacy to authenticate whether the prescription offered by the employee was filled by the pharmacy, you or staff under your operational control can contact the pharmacy.#

(ii)If you utilize staff to perform the inquiry in paragraph (b)(1)(i) of this section, you must ensure operational control over the hiring, firing, evaluation of the staff and you must oversee the performance of the function of contacting a pharmacy to authenticate specific prescription(s) (e.g., outline or script what the staff will ask the pharmacy; occasionally monitor calls to assure quality control; or other methods to ensure the staff are properly conducting the calls with the pharmacies).#

(2)You may request an HHS-certified laboratory with validated protocols (see § 40.81(c)) to conduct testing for D,L stereoisomers of amphetamine and methamphetamine or testing for tetrahydrocannabivarin (THC-V) when verifying lab results, as you determine necessary.#