TPA stands for third party administrator and C/TPA stands for Consortium/ third party administrator. There are terms used to describe those in the business of drug and alcohol testing programs.
The TPA puts together all of the services employers need to manage a drug testing program including collectors, collection sites, BAT’s, STT’s, Laboratories, Medical Review Officers (MRO’s), SAP’s, EAP Programs, random testing programs and overall drug testing program management.
The term Consortia/Third Party Administrator was coined by DOT with the rewrite of 49 CFR Part 40 back in 2001. C/TPA’s providing DOT drug & alcohol testing services should be intimately familiar with program 49 CFR Part 40, read it over and read it over again.
In 49 CFR Part 40 the C/TPA is defined as: A service agent that provides or coordinates the provision of a variety of drug and alcohol testing services to employers. C/TPAs typically perform administrative tasks concerning the operation of the employers’ drug and alcohol testing programs. This term includes, but is not limited to, groups of employers who join together to administer, as a single entity, the DOT drug and alcohol testing programs of its members.
The term consortium came about as a result of smaller companies needing TPA services to effectively comply with the DOT drug and alcohol regulations, specifically random testing.
The TPA puts together all of the services employers need to manage a drug testing program including collectors, collection sites, BAT’s, STT’s, Laboratories, Medical Review Officers (MRO’s), SAP’s, EAP Programs, random testing programs and overall drug testing program management.