Source: AAFP Fighting for Family Medicine
For more than a decade, commercial drivers who require insulin have had only one path to maintaining a commercial driver’s license (CDL): getting the signature of an endocrinologist on a form once a year.
That changes Monday, November 19, when the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), part of the Department of Transportation, updates a regulation to allow other medical professionals, including family physicians, to sign the form.
The move is an important modification of an FMCSA rule, in place since 2005, that required drivers of large trucks and buses who are being treated with insulin for diabetes to obtain certification from an endocrinologist that they could continue driving. Without that annual waiver, an insulin-dependent driver was ineligible to stay on the road.
To read more, visit the American Academy of Family Physicians website.