FMCSA is preparing to ask the White House Office of Management and Budget to sign off on continuing an optional form that medical examiners can send to a driver's prescribing clinician. The form helps the examiner understand why a drug was prescribed before deciding on a driver's medical certification. A single public comment arrived during the earlier 60-day review window.
Key Points
- Use of the form is entirely optional for medical examiners who issue medical certificates to commercial drivers.
- Examiners who adopt it can contact the clinician who prescribed a given medication to learn the reason behind it.
- The responses help the examiner judge whether a driver meets medical standards.
- The information can reveal disqualifying conditions, or conditions and medications that might impair safe driving or cause incapacitation.
- The agency received one comment after publishing its initial 60-day notice in the Federal Register.
Why It Matters
The form gives examiners a way to get prescriber input on a driver's medications so certification decisions can account for risks of impairment or sudden incapacitation on the road.