Until regulations were passed by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services stating that all Medicaid Prescription must be written on Tamper Resistant Paper, the definition of Tamper Resistant Paper was vague.

Prior to this legislation, paper that contained one or more security features could be defined as “Tamper Resistant.”

All Security Features fell into two categories. Security Features were described as either OVERT and COVERT.
To secure a document, it was recommended to use one or more security features from each category

However following the CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) legislation that went into effect October 1, 2008, to be considered Tamper Resistant Security Paper as it relates to Prescription Paper (Rx Scripts), the actual paper on which the script is written must contain at least ONE SECURITY FEATURE from each of the three categories as defined by CMS.

CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) described these categories as follows:

Category One ~
One or More industry-recognized features designed to prevent unauthorized copying

Category Two ~
One or More industry-recognized features designed to prevent the erasure or modification
of information written on a prescription by the prescriber.

Category Three ~ One or More industry-recognized features designed to prevent the use of counterfeit prescription forms.

Since the CMS legislation passed, there have been numerous discussions and papers written as to which security features fall under the three categories stated above. It is important to note the intent of the legislation; to prevent fraud and accurate duplication of medical prescriptions.

We submit the following "Industry-Recognized" security features and the categories in which we believe they fall.

Category One

• Void Pantograph background (Hidden Message Technology)
• Reverse Rx Symbol (There is little evidence this feature is a true security feature)
• Micro Printing
• Artificial Watermark on back of document

  Category Two
  

• Erasure Protection - Colored Shaded Pantograph background
• Toner Grip Security Coating
• "Check and Balance" printed features such as "quantity" check boxes, and space to indicate "number of medications" written on prescription form
  (There is little evidence this feature is a true security feature)

  Category Three
  

• Security Feature Warning Box and Warning Bands
• Security Back Printing - printed watermark
• Coin Activated Ink
• Batch Number identification
• Secure Rub Color Change Ink
• Consecutive Numbering

Thanks to the CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) legislation, we now have a set of guidelines which can act as a basis upon which to build a better understanding of Tamper Resistant Security Paper and Document Security Paper Features.