DEA to double prescribing fee

Doctors feel taxed by the Drug Enforcement Administration's proposal to raise fees to $131.

By Andis Robeznieks, AMNews staff. March 10, 2003.

Melvyn L. Sterling, MD, an internist in Orange, Calif., said the Federal Drug Enforcement Administration's move to raise its annual registration fee past the $100 mark is a bitter pill to swallow.

"It's not just the fee," he said. "It's the time and the bother and the accountant's time to list all these fees and pay them."

In addition to the DEA's requested fee hike, from $70 to $131, Dr. Sterling said he has to pay ever-increasing fees and taxes to state, county and city governments, including a fee for "generating potentially infectious waste" even though he already pays for collecting that waste.

"I will not continually absorb these burdens, I'll have to pass it on to my patients," Dr. Sterling said. "Since I can't pass it on to Medicare patients, I'll take fewer Medicare patients."

If the DEA increase is approved, nearly 950,000 physicians will be hit within the next three to six months. Most of them face financial issues similar to Dr. Sterling's. They are frustrated by increasing fees and charges, low Medicare reimbursements, rising liability rates and contractual locks on the fees they can charge managed care patients. Even nickel-and-dime fees add up and, some say, often amount to unfair taxation.

"The AMA strongly opposes any attempt by the government to impose user fees or provider taxes on physicians for programs that benefit all of society," AMA President Yank D. Coble Jr., MD, said in a statement. "Programs that benefit all taxpayers shouldn't be paid for by a select few. We are reviewing the regulation and will comment within the 60-day public comment period."