All right, what's going on here?
The actual genesis of the Collector Registry took place several years ago just outside of Chicago when Bill Judge and Dan Spaethe were trying to develop a process to manage the never-ending and always-changing requirements associated with federally-mandated substance abuse testing. Anyone who has ever been charged with starting, managing or God-forbid, just trying to explain a Company Drug and Alcohol Testing Program, knows this task will never be confused with one of our Founding Father's first federal mandates concerning life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
The National Qualified Collector Registry (NQCR) is administered by the Law Offices of William J. Judge. Since 1984, Mr. Judge has been a practicing attorney whose law practice concentrates on the issues relating to drug and alcohol testing in the workplace. As a ten-year faculty member of ACOEM (American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine) and an advisor to ASAM (American Society of Addiction Medicine), Mr. Judge is one of the most experienced legal advisors on this topic in the country. This service was developed in response to the need created by the changes to "Part 40" (49 CFR Part 40) which became effective in August 2001.
What is the NQCR?
The working title for the National Qualified Collector Registry is CollectorRegistry, an online service that audits, archives and makes available drug test collector qualifications. NQCR does not charge for access to the documentation provided by registered collection sites. The information is available online for any employer or Third Party Administrator (TPA) to access.
So why does CollectorRegistry deserve blogger space on the internet?
Because after I get through this next part, the people who MUST make sense from all these rules and regulations to protect their jobs (let's be real, this is definitely about CYA), companies who must conduct substance abuse testing for all safety-sensitive positions, not too mention all the folks involved in finding collection sites for their corporate clients; and, of course, the drug and alcohol test collectors actually performing these millions of tests every year -- everybody responsible for making sure the tests are collected properly and reported accurately -- it all boils down to one thing:
If you refer somebody to a collection site to be tested, you better be sure that collector is qualified and you can prove it in a hurry - if you have to....
Background Information
As of January 31, 2003 each person, conducting a drug test collection for any employer following federal guidelines, must be qualified in accordance with federal rules (49 CFR Part 40). These rules call for proper training and documentation. There have been many reported cases throughout the country of employees who have tested positive for illicit drug use, but get their job back, because the collector was not qualified, or did not have proof that they were. This can be very costly to the employer, their TPA and to the collector.
The new rules preclude employers or their TPA from relying upon any assurance by collectors that they are in compliance. Federal rules state that "an employer's good faith use of a collector that is not qualified is no excuse and cannot serve as a defense to an enforcement action by DOT, or in an action by a former applicant or employee." These rules require collectors to produce written documentation of qualifications upon request.
Many large employers, who self-administer their testing programs, are at a loss as to how to be certain they have contracted with collectors that are properly qualified. This is, of course, without spending an extremely large portion of their total drug and alcohol testing budgets, auditing and maintaining up-to-date documentation of each collector at each collection site. Virtually all employers using third party administrators expect their TPA to handle the problem. Most TPAs however, have been struggling with finding a cost effective method of ensuring that the required documentation is collected and maintained.
Some employers and TPAs are merely calling their collection sites or asking them to sign a letter stating that their collectors have been trained. In our view, this type of solution is essentially a "good faith" reliance that the collector is qualified and, as was pointed out above, should not be substituted for actually gathering appropriate documentation. Should the need arise; litigators will feel far more comfortable being able to put their hands on a piece of paper documenting a collector's qualifications.
Since October 2002, Collection Site Audit Services, a service of the Law Offices of William J. Judge, has conducted hundreds of collection site audits and found many of those reviewed not qualified. Combine that with an extremely high turnover rate among collectors and it is easy to see that keeping up with collector qualifications is a difficult task for employers and their program administrators.
This is why the CollectorRegistry.com website was created. Employers and Consortia / Third Party Administrators must make sure the collection sites with whom they have contracts join CollectorRegistry.com.
We are in the business of providing peace of mind in a restless world ...
