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DEA, HHS Issue Third Extension of Pandemic Telehealth Prescribing Flexibilities

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On Friday the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in concert with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a third extension of COVID-19 telehealth flexibilities for the prescribing of controlled medications, to be effective through December 31, 2025.

These telemedicine flexibilities, originally granted in March 2020 as part of the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency, authorize qualified health professionals to prescribe Schedule II-V controlled medications via telemedicine, including Schedule III-V narcotic-controlled medications approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of opioid use disorder via audio-only telemedicine encounters.

“This additional time will allow DEA (and also HHS, for rules that must be issued jointly) to promulgate proposed and final regulations that are consistent with public health and safety, and that also effectively mitigate the risk of possible diversion,” the extension states. “Furthermore, this Third Temporary Rule will allow adequate time for providers to come into compliance with any new standards or safeguards eventually adopted in a final set of regulations.”

Early in 2023, the DEA proposed regulations that would curtail some telemedicine prescribing flexibilities extended to qualified health professionals during the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency—for instance, by requiring an in-person visit for the prescribing of controlled substances. (The proposals appeared as two separate rules in the Federal Register: “Telemedicine Prescribing of Controlled Substances When the Practitioner and the Patient Have Not Had a Prior In-Person Medical Evaluation” and “Expansion of Induction of Buprenorphine Via Telemedicine Encounter.”) APA filed two letters in response to these proposed rules in March 2023, urging that the DEA balance common-sense safeguards for DEA enforcement without decreasing access to lifesaving treatment. In October 2023, the DEA and HHS issued a second temporary extension that continued the telehealth flexibilities until December 31, 2024.

For related information, see the Psychiatric News article “DEA, HHS Extend Telemedicine Flexibilities Through 2024.”

Source: https://alert.psychnews.org