Home Forums Discussions General Discussion Questions re: EPCS -Electronic Prescription Controlled Substance

California will require for 2022, investigating options, hope someone can offer guidance regarding cost and required equipment for AC v11.
What is the cost?
Is it per year?
Is it per calendar year or consecutive 12mo?
Is it per prescriber?
Is there a lower or zero cost option?
Does it require a "smartphone" or will it work with my old clamshell cell phone that can receive SMS texts?
I do not write a lot of controlled prescriptions, perhaps 1 per day, and if there is a less expensive but more cumbersome way outside of AC via another vendor (Office Ally - Practice Mate) I'm amenable.
Thanks for any advice.

$250 per provider, per year

They send you a keyfob as a hard token but can also use smartphone with authy app

You sign up directly through the New Crop screens and I paid via PayPal

I think it is consecutive 12 mo but I signed up in 12/31/2020 thinking my state was mandatory 1/1/2021 but Covid pushed that back to 1/1/2022.

I could not find a free option. All other options there was a cost. AC was the cheapest option when I was looking for alternatives in Dec 2020.