WEEKLY UPDATE: 10/10/24
Healthcare providers, telehealth companies, lawmakers, and other advocates are urging the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to extend telehealth flexibilities which would waive the in-person visit requirement prior to the prescribing of controlled substances virtually. The flexibilities are set to expire at the end of the year, and advocates are warning that their expiration could negatively affect patient care related to opioid use disorder treatment.
Those calling for an extension include a bipartisan group of two dozen lawmakers who are urging the Biden administration to extend the telehealth prescribing flexibilities.
If the legal authority allowing clinicians to prescribe DEA-regulated medications virtually expires, it would result in the reinstatement of limits on remote prescribing of controlled substances that existed before the COVID-19 pandemic, likely reducing access to medication-assisted treatment such as buprenorphine for opioid addiction.
Telehealth opioid treatment companies have also called for action, pointing to the potential impact on the hundreds of thousands of patients who obtain life-saving treatment for opioid use disorder through telehealth prescribing.
In addition to calling for a two-year extension, advocates have urged the DEA to take steps during that time to establish a pathway through a special registration process to make the flexibilities permanent.
