DOT News and Updates

DOT and State Licensing Authorities Integration

Summary: No impact. Users are advised to take extra care in verifying driver details, including Driver Name, DOB, License number, and State, BEFORE completing exams. Errors in these fields may cause results to be rejected and require manual intervention by the medical examiner.

Starting June 23rd, 2025, commercial drivers will no longer need to take their medical certificates to their local DMV to get their records updated. The DOT will instead directly send medical exam results to the state licensing authorities. This means no change for you (the medical examiner) and in an ideal world, MedFiller will continue communicating with the DOT on your behalf, and the DOT will do the rest! 

However, mistakes do happen in the real world. Drivers can enter their details incorrectly, and examiners can forget to match the driver’s details with the license presented.

Furthermore, external software systems, such as MedFiller, are NOT part of the communication loop between the DOT and the various states. This means that it may be several hours or even days after the exam before the DOT notifies you (the examiner) of a state’s rejection of a result. The driver may have long gone, under the assumption that their medical history has been validated and made available to the state.

How will examiners be notified of state-level rejections by the DOT?  If a state rejects a medical result, the DOT will notify the examiner using their National Registry (NRCME) contact information, and details will be made available inside the NRCME portal. It is therefore essential to keep the medical examiner’s contact information in the National Registry updated at all times.

Can MedFiller let me know or handle these issues for me? No. The DOT does not authorize exam processing software systems such as MedFiller to resolve such issues, and notifications of a state-level result rejection are sent only to the medical examiner. The specifics (how to resolve, contacting the patient etc.) are also not options available to MedFiller. If, at a later date, the DOT allows communications between their systems and software such as MedFiller, we will add the appropriate functionality.

How has MedFiller prepared for this? MedFiller rolled out a mandatory confirmation of identification by the user processing the medical exam. Users must check off a box that confirms that they have reviewed driver identity fields (Name, DOB, License # in the license) and matched them against their DOT form. Users following this step should have little to no rejections from states.

If certificates are sent to the DMV electronically, should we still print out the certificates for the Driver? We strongly recommend doing so for the foreseeable future, as many employers will ask for a physical copy of the driver’s medical certificate. This is a significant change for commercial drivers, trucking companies, and DOT roadside enforcement officers. Until the entire trucking ecosystem gets used to the change, having paper in hand is the safest option, especially if a rejected result is possible. 

This is also a matter of courtesy and record-keeping. Providing the patient with a copy is akin to providing an official receipt. The receipt allows the driver to keep track of their medical certificate expiration date, and they can provide their employer with written proof if necessary.  

Where can I find out more about this topic? DOT Fact Sheet and directly from the DOT/NRCME: https://nationalregistry.fmcsa.dot.gov/nriilearning-cente