The U.S. Department of Transportation proposes to amend provisions of its workplace drug testing procedures to make them consistent with new requirements established by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Mandatory Guidelines.

Some of the proposed changes will affect the roles and standards applying to collectors and Medical Review Officers as well as procedures related to urine testing, including initiating testing for methylenedioxymethamphetamine and 6-acetylmorphines, and lowering the cutoff concentrations for amphetamines and cocaine.

However, the DOT notes in its proposal that it will not be following all of the DHHS requirements: it will not propose change to its longstanding regulatory position that a collector need not obtain prior approval from collection site supervisor before performing a direct observation collection.

“Requiring collectors to get approval from collection site supervisors would create difficult logistical issues that would complicate the process,” the DOT explains. “There are numerous instances where the collector is alone or does not have immediate access to a collection site supervisor. In fact, the collector may be the site supervisor. Many collections occur off-site or in the middle of the night where and when supervisors would not be available, and requiring consultation with an unavailable supervisor would prove onerous and serve only to delay unnecessarily the [direct observation] process.”

The new DHHS Mandatory Guidelines require MROs to retain records for two years, and although the DOT says it is “comfortable” with its current requirements that MROs follow the employer’s recordkeeping requirements—one year for negative results and 5 years for non-negative results—it does seek comments about what types of MRO records should be covered under the record keeping requirements.