Specifications

Drug-Screen Handling

Drug-test results are handled outside the FCRA — under MRO review and chain-of-custody, kept off the report.

What it ensures

A raw positive can be a prescription or a lab error, and a drug result isn’t a consumer-report item. This control gates release behind Medical Review Officer review and keeps the result out of the FCRA report path entirely.

It is included for completeness and sits, by design, at the edge of the library — governed by testing regulation, not the FCRA.

Watch it run

A drug-test result comes back — and it needs to be handled under the right regime, not the FCRA.

Illustrative run — one case moving through the Drug-Screen Handling specification.

Result received MRO reviewed Released Withheld
Permitted transition Forbidden move Start Terminal state
Drug-test results sit outside the FCRA, under the Medical Review Officer process and chain-of-custody rules. Releasing a raw result without MRO review — or into the FCRA report — is in red.
✕ Report raw result 1 ✓ Result 2 ✓ MRO review 3 ✓ Released
Ready

A drug-test result comes back on an applicant.

  1. Ready

    The result

    A lab result arrives. Unlike the rest of this library, it isn’t an FCRA record — it has its own rules.

  2. Blocked

    The wrong move

    A raw positive can be a prescription, a false positive, or a handling error. Releasing it without MRO review, or mixing it into the FCRA report, is refused.

    Where it comes from

    Drug-test results are handled under testing regulation and the Medical Review Officer process (for DOT-covered testing, 49 CFR Part 40), with chain-of-custody — a regime separate from the FCRA.

    What it satisfies

    Gating release behind MRO review, and keeping the result out of the FCRA report path, follows the testing rules — not the FCRA, which is why this control sits at the edge of the library.

    MRO review (49 CFR Part 40) Guidance Medical Review Officer process — e.g., 49 CFR Part 40 (DOT testing) Drug-test results are confirmed by a Medical Review Officer and handled under chain-of-custody rules — governed by testing regulation (such as 49 CFR Part 40 for DOT-covered testing), not the FCRA. Included for completeness; it sits outside the FCRA report path.
  3. Permitted

    MRO review

    A qualified reviewer confirms the result and rules out legitimate explanations.

  4. Permitted

    Released

    It reaches the employer on its own track, not folded into the consumer report.

  5. On the record

    The proof

    The file shows the result passed MRO review and stayed out of the FCRA path.

Why it holds

Why it holds

This control is included for completeness and sits, deliberately, outside the FCRA. The shape is the same as the rest: a raw result can’t be released without MRO review, and can’t leak into the FCRA report. Reliability isn’t handler judgment; it’s that the unreviewed result has no path.

Why it matters

Mishandling a drug result — releasing it unreviewed or mixing it into the consumer report — is a testing-regime and privacy failure, distinct from FCRA exposure.