Safety Lane: BIG CHANGES to the CDL Medical card after December 22, 2015

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safety-lane.com 07105
chiropractic-lane.com
NEWARK 
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SAFETY LANE: BIG CHANGES to the CDL Medical card after December 22, 2015


Dr. Gerald Lane

owner of Chiropractic Lane (http://bit.ly/13y0UmH), Healthy Lane (www.healthy-lane.com) and Safety Lane (www.safety-lane.com)
290 Ferry Street
Suite A1
Newark, NJ 07105
Office:  973-344-5656
Fax 973-344-5633


While many of you know that only a certified medical examiner have been able to do the CDL physicals since it became law on become law on May 21. 2014, did you know even more change are occurring on December 22, 2015?


After December 22, 2015 certified medical examiner will continue to look at 25 areas of the body as they always have but will add another 9 for a total of 34 areas of the body.  Among other things, we will look at the skin and walking pattern (gait).


MOST SIGNIFICANT: many of you have been given a 3 month CDL physical card until the doctor can verify information, such as hemoglobin A1C levels or vision or hearing results for those who do not pass those portions of the exam but have a regular doctor.


Basically, a CME can use this short-term CDL card to assist the driver to continue to work while information is gathered.  The driver must return within that time when either the doctor or the driver get the required information to issue the driver a 1-year of 2-year card.


The federal government agency (FMCSA) first considered making the 3-month card a 45-day card.  A few weeks ago the decision was made to do away with any kind of temporary card.


THOSE CARDS WILL NO LONGER BE ISSUED. After December 22, 2015 if you do not pass the CDL physical exam 100% to be issued a 1-year or 2-year CDL physical card, you will be disqualified to drive.


There is no longer going to be any kind of 3-month temporary card that is legal


If you do not arrive with your A1C levels verified by a paper with your doctor’s office information in the header or a fax to the CME doctor’s office, you will not walk out with a CDL physical card.

  1. If you have a disqualifying condition, you should get your CDL physical exam before your current card expires to be sure that everything is intact and complete.  If you do not pass, then let the doctor continue the examination on another day with all of your tests complete.
  2. If you take blood pressure medication, take it about 3 hours before your CDL physical so it will be working when you go to the examiner’s office
  3. If you have diabetes, have it under control before you go to the CDL examiner’s office.
  4. If you have bad A1C levels (this number must be below 7.  If it is higher, it indicates that your blood sugar is not regularly under control.  
  5. One good reading of your glucose does not mean your A1C levels will be good.  Only regularly keeping your blood sugar under control will make the A1C levels good.

So why is the FMCSA doing this?  The reasoning would seem to be that the roads must have 100% healthy commercial drivers, no exceptions.




The list of all medical professionals with this designation can be found at http://1.usa.gov/1a1zxZD


I have this designation,  National Registry # 9221125725.

Getting this certification status for a doctor is not a simple matter of simply asking for it. This was not an easy designation to get at all: it took a six-part course, recognition of the course, some money and then a 120-question exam in 120 minutes.  The questions challenged your professional knowledge against your clinical knowledge.

The changes are very clear: this is an examination of the driver that is making everyone responsible for the driver’s health.  Gone are the days when the driver’s could seek out the doctors who will pass everyone with a 2-year certificate with very little actual testing of the driver’s health.

For example: let’s say that the driver has hypertension (high blood pressure) and he wants to hide it.  He takes some blood pressure pills, gets tested and is found within a normal range (normotensive).  Everything else checks out within normal limits and he gets a 2-year certificate.  A few months later he is driving and his high blood pressure causes him to experience tachycardia or burst a blood vessel in his eye or one of the other side-effects of this condition.  There is an accident and damage occurs.

In the pre-CME days: nothing would be done to anyone, the driver for lying, the doctor for doing a bad job of doing the exam.

Now, if the exam is done by a CME, the driver is required to sign a document during the exam that he has told his complete history and has not withheld any information.

In the same scenario noted above, there are two possible outcomes

If the driver lied and this high blood pressure caused damage to occur he will be held responsible and he will lose his CDL license and probably his means of making a living, as well as face possible criminal charges. I have no idea how long he will lose his license for.

If the driver told the truth about this hypertension and the doctor did not verify whether the patient was compliant with his regimen and medications and even ignored it by giving the driver a 2-year certificate (a medication-controlled hypertensive can get no more than a one-year certificate) then the doctor will lose his certificate as a CME and possibly face criminal charges.

All the results of every physical a CME does is sent up to a central government database within 24 hours of the physical exam.

I have done these exams and am now considered to be the #1 examiner in the state of NJ.  As of today, I have done over 1000 of these exams in less than 2 years!

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