FMCSA Updates Medical Examiner’s Handbook
Physicians have reliable guidance for the first time in seven years. They can use this guidance to help determine if commercial truck drivers are physically fit to operate their vehicles. Comments on the draft handbook must be received on or before Sept. 30, 2022.
The FMCSA on Tuesday published a draft of its new Medical Examiner’s Handbook (MEH). The handbook provides information on driver health requirements and guidelines used by medical examiners listed on FMCSA’s National Registry of Certified Medical Examiners to interpret regulations on physical qualifications for commercial drivers.
Medical Examiners And Trucking Demands
A Medical Examiner (ME) is licensed to perform physical examinations and must also be knowledgeable of the physical and mental demands associated with operating a truck. Specialists, such as cardiologists and endocrinologists, may perform additional medical evaluation, but it is the medical examiner who decides if the driver is medically qualified to drive.
“Other health care professionals, such as treating providers and specialists, may provide additional medical information or consultation, but the ME ultimately decides whether the driver meets the physical qualification standards of FMCSA,” according to the agency.
The FMCSA also emphasized that the recommendations and guidance in the handbook “do not have the force and effect of law and are not meant to bind MEs, drivers or the public in any way. Rather, such guidance itself is only advisory and not mandatory.”, unlike regulations.
They first posted the MEH on its website in 2008. They ended up withdrawing it in 2015 because some of the information was “obsolete or was prescriptive in nature,” according to FMCSA, and therefore MEs and training organizations were told not to consider the MEH as guidance to interpret federal regulations.
Sleep Apnea (OSA) Rulemaking
Federal regulations do not include specific requirements related to testing drivers for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). In orde for this to be addressed, the FMCSA would have to go through a formal rulemaking process.
The FMCSA and the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) issued an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking on OSA in 2016, but the Trump administration withdrew the proposal one year later (2017). The agencies stated that “The agencies believe that current safety programs and FRA’s rulemaking addressing fatigue risk management are the appropriate avenues to address OSA,”
FMCSA addresses OSA in the MEH handbook by providing a link to recommendations made in 2016 by the Medical Review Board, which is an advisory committee to the agency. It includes suggestions on risk factors, screening, testing and medical certification of drivers with OSA.
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