{"id":1993,"date":"2016-08-24T17:36:02","date_gmt":"2016-08-24T17:36:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fmcsa-medical-board-recommendations-could-preview-sleep-apnea-rule\/"},"modified":"2025-01-10T16:50:05","modified_gmt":"2025-01-10T16:50:05","slug":"fmcsa-medical-board-recommendations-could-preview-sleep-apnea-rule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/fmcsa-medical-board-recommendations-could-preview-sleep-apnea-rule\/","title":{"rendered":"FMCSA Medical Board Recommendations Could Preview Sleep Apnea Rule"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Medical Review Board of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration outlined its official recommendations to the agency on screening and disqualification criteria for truck drivers who are suspected of having moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea.<\/p>\n

As reported by CCJ magazine, the board\u2019s preliminary recommendations, which have not yet been approved, encourage FMCSA to require a trucker to be screened for sleep apnea if he or she:<\/p>\n

(1) has a body mass index greater than 40, or<\/p>\n

(2) has a body mass index greater than 33 and meets three of the following: is older than 42, is male, is a postmenopausal female, has diabetes, has high blood pressure, has a neck size greater than 17 inches (males) or 15.5 inches (females), has a history of heart disease, snores loudly, has witnessed apneas, has a small airway, has untreated hypothyroidism or has micrognathia or retrognathia.<\/p>\n

The board also would recommend that FMCSA allow truckers with a sleep apnea diagnosis to continue to operate if they\u2019re being \u201ctreated effectively,\u201d which is defined as \u201cthe resolution of moderate to severe OSA to mild or better, as determined by a certified sleep specialist,\u201d according to the board\u2019s preliminary discussion report.<\/p>\n

These recommendations \u2014 and the others discussed by the board this week \u2014 are not yet final, however, as the board did not vote to approve them. Another meeting will be needed to finalize and approve the recommendations. No meeting date is set yet. As well, FMCSA has no legal requirement to adopt any of the board\u2019s suggestions, but it\u2019s expected to lean on them when developing a sleep apnea rule, if it chooses.<\/p>\n

The board based its recommendations on multiple public meetings held this year, in which board members heard testimony from truckers and industry advocacy groups, along with expert testimony from doctors. The board also relied on formal public comments made on its \u201cpre-rule\u201d questionnaire<\/a> to the industry about apnea\u2019s prevalence, screening and treatment, costs and more.<\/p>\n

Among other preliminary recommendations outlined by the board this week is a provision to limit truckers who\u2019ve received a sleep apnea diagnosis to a yearly medical certification, even if the diagnosis was for mild apnea. This means truckers with any type of apnea diagnosis would need to be recertified at least annually, if not more often, rather than the standard every-other-year certification.<\/p>\n

The board also spelled out screening and treatment requirements and a conditional certification measure. Medical examiners under the board\u2019s recommendations would be able to issue 90-day condition medical certifications to truckers who\u2019ve been referred for sleep screening based on the aforementioned risk factors (BMI, etc.). Such truck operators would be required to be tested and begin treatment within the allotted 90 days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Medical Review Board of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration outlined its official recommendations to the agency on screening and disqualification criteria for truck drivers who are suspected of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":490,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,62],"tags":[650,553,519],"class_list":["post-1993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-labour-hr-driver-shortage","category-operations-safety","tag-health-and-wellness","tag-medical","tag-sleep-apnea"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}