The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced last week that an update to the Controlled Substance Utilization Review and Evaluation System (CURES) database would go live July 1, but with browser requirements that could potentially cut off access for thousands of prescribers and dispensers.

According to the DOJ, CURES 2.0 would require users to have Internet Explorer version 11, Safari, Firefox or Chrome Internet browsers installed on their systems in order to access the database.

In response to member concerns, the California Medical Association (CMA) met with DOJ to discuss the browser incompatibility issue. DOJ has committed to a short-term solution by phasing in CURES 2.0 over the next few months and will maintaining CURES 1.0 until January 2016. There still remain unanswered questions, however, including how this impacts registration of new users, and CMA is still assessing if all users will be able to address the compatibility issues by January.

CMA and other stakeholders continued to express concerns to DOJ about the readiness of CURES 2.0 and the system’s capacity to run versions 1.0 and 2.0 concurrently. We are pleased that DOJ has now agreed to undergo real world testing of the system on a limited basis as the next step and will delay implementation of the new version statewide.

Based on communications with DOJ, CMA has produced a summary of what CURES users should know about the launch of the new system, including updates on access and registration changes. Click here to read the summary.

As both a long-term solution and the full scope of those impacted have yet to be determined, please contact CMA if the CURES 2.0 browser restrictions pose a problem for you.

Contact: CMA’s Legal Information Line at (800) 786-4262 or fkader@cmadocs.org.