DOT News and Updates

Missing Exam Results at the DMV?

Summary: If you have double checked the certificate details (Driver Name, DOB, License #, State, CDL Status, etc.) and verified that there are no pending alerts in your National Registry examiner account, there isn’t much troubleshooting that you can do for drivers! Many clients are reporting the need to re-do exams or re-submit results.

We continue to field questions about missing exam results everyday. We are educating examiners and their staff about the importance of verifying driver details before finalizing exams. Equally important is keeping your National Registry Examiner account information updated so that the DOT can let you know of possible issues. License numbers, date of birth, spelling of driver names including formatting of last name (multiple last names, suffixes like Sr. Jr. III) and CDL status being the key areas of concern. Both you and the driver should take a moment to verify accurate data entry from the license before completing a DOT Physical exam. 

MedFiller forces you to take a moment and ask the driver for a physical copy of the license for verification. But many examiners seem to be ignoring the prompt. As a result the most common issue we’ve had to address in the past few months is employers or driver’s complaining to you that they cannot find their exam results at their local DMV

Recap: If you haven’t been keeping in touch here is the summary and reminder of how and why this happens. You use MedFiller to complete exams and the results are electronically relayed to the NRCME (part of the Federal Department of Transport, the DOT). You also provide a print or email copy of the certificate to the patient. If everything goes smoothly, your job is done the moment you complete the exam in MedFiller.

Data Exchange between the DOT and State DMVs: The next step is generally out of everyone’s control and this is where we are seeing some lingering issues. For drivers in most states, the results are then electronically communicated to the state DMVs by the NRCME.  While there are still some states that are requiring driver’s to visit their state DMV and submit the printed results of their physical exam, chances are that if you are reading this, your state is not following the manual process. Click here to find out which process your state is following. 

This electronic transmission medical certificate data from Federal to State level is where many validation checks are done and this process is not observable. It is also not real-time and may be delayed. Remember driver licenses are issued at the State level and the Department of Transport has no way of verifying the driver information you provided them as valid before they actually communicate with the State. When the data exchange takes place between the DOT and the State, the State can often reject submissions (typically with a driver/license not found error). The DOT will then notify you (the examiner) of a state rejected submission and leave up to you to communicate with the driver and resolve the concern.

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.

In short: You must (A) Check driver information carefully before finalizing exams paying special attention to the fields mentioned above and (B) Keep your DOT Medical Examiner Account (NRCME) information update to date to be notified of any errors when the DOT sends results downstream to the State/DMV level

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