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Veterinary Prescription Reporting Frequently Asked Questions

1.  Which owner/client should the prescription be reported under when the animal has multiple owners and the prescription is dispensed by a pharmacy?

Answer: If the animal has multiple owners, the dispenser should report the prescription to the MN PMP under only one of the owners, by using the client’s name, DOB, and gender as provided to the veterinarian.

 2.  What is the guidance for when an animal does not have a name?

Answer: If an animal’s name is truly unknown, then “Unknown” should be entered in the Name of Animal field (e.g. police officer locates an injured animal and brings to veterinary emergency room, upon which the animal is discharged with a controlled substance medication). 

3.  What is the guidance for when the animal does not have an owner? What is the owner’s date of birth and address in this instance?

Answer: If an animal is discharged from an inpatient facility and the owner is unknown, then the rescue director or animal control officer is considered the owner of the animal. The date of birth and gender of the rescue director or animal control officer should be utilized if the animal is discharged with controlled substance medications when reporting to the MN PMP. The address of the rescue organization or animal control should be utilized when reporting address to the MN PMP.

4.  What happens if the owner changes the animal’s name?

Answer: If the owner changes the animal’s name, then this will be reflected when a new prescription is reported to the PMP. By associating an animal’s prescription with its owner, insight may be gained if a client is changing the animal’s name in an attempt to mislead veterinarians or mix the animal’s controlled substance prescriptions with their own.

5. How are changes of ownership reflected in the PMP (i.e. a change in marital status or sale of animal)?

Answer: If an animal’s owner changes, then this will be reflected with a new owner’s name when a prescription is issued and reported to the PMP under new ownership.

6. Does the animal’s date of birth need to be reported to the PMP?

Answer: With the association of the animal’s prescription to the client or owner, the animal’s DOB is no longer a required field when reporting to the MN PMP. Rather, the client’s DOB should be reported in PAT18, Date of Birth.

7.  How do my patients' animal prescriptions affect Risk Scores and analytics when viewing a NarxCare report?

Answer: When a prescription is dispensed for an animal, the reporting dispenser is required to indicate that the prescription is for a veterinary patient. Additionally, the name of the animal must be reported to the MN PMP along with the owner or caretaker’s information. The following applies to a MN PMP NarxCare report for a human patient, that shows prescription(s) reported as dispensed for an animal in their care:

• Prescriptions dispensed for a patient’s animal(s) are excluded from the algorithm used to create risk scores. (Narx Scores and Overdoes Risk Score)
• The interactive graphs show prescriptions by prescriber, therefore veterinary prescribed prescriptions are listed separately.
• Animal prescriptions are not included in the daily morphine milligram equivalents.
• Animal prescriptions are included in the Summary section which is an aggregation count of prescribers, prescriptions, and pharmacies.
• In the line by line prescription data animal prescriptions are listed with an animal icon that will present the animal's name when hovered. 

8. How do I report a prescription for a non-controlled but reportable substance and the prescribing veterinarian either does not possess or did not provide their DEA number?

Answer: Submit the prescription record using the prescribing veterinarian’s Minnesota license number as the identifier (PRE04.) License numbers can be found on the Minnesota Board of Veterinary Medicine’s online search tool. (If the prescribing veterinarian is licensed outside of MN, please contact the program staff at minnesota.pmp@state.mn.us.)

Communications were sent to all data submitters regarding animal prescription reporting. See communications HERE.  

Update June 2022