Evidence status: CURRENT PRESCRIPTION-MONITORING REQUIREMENT. Massachusetts’ Prescription Awareness Tool, MassPAT, is a separate legal monitoring layer from any pain-management treatment agreement.
Mandatory MassPAT review
M.G.L. c.94C §24A requires practitioners to use the prescription-monitoring program each time they issue a prescription for a Schedule II or III narcotic drug or a benzodiazepine, subject to regulatory exceptions.
What MassPAT covers
The Massachusetts Prescription Monitoring Program collects controlled-substance dispensing information and makes it available to authorized users through MassPAT. The current system supports review of Schedule II through V controlled substances and designated additional drugs.
Why this is distinct from a treatment agreement
A prescriber may have a signed treatment agreement and still be independently required to check MassPAT. Conversely, MassPAT review does not itself create a patient contract.
Professional-rule overlap
The hydrocodone-only extended-release rules for physicians, dentists and APRNs specifically require a MassPAT/PMP check before prescribing that medication. That monitoring duty is part of the professional rule in addition to the separate agreement requirement.
Primary sources
Reviewed: October 4, 2026.