The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is once again extending telemedicine prescribing flexibilities for controlled substances. This latest extension, which is now the third extension of such flexibilities originally implemented during the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE), became effective November 19, 2024 and lasts through December 31, 2025.[1]
Generally, a registered practitioner can prescribe controlled substances only if they have conducted an in-person evaluation of the patient in accordance with the Ryan Haight Online Pharmacy Consumer Protection Act of 2008 (the “Ryan Haight Act”).[2] During the course of the COVID-19 PHE, the DEA granted temporary exceptions to the Ryan Haight Act, allowing practitioners to prescribe controlled substances to patients without conducting an initial in-person medical evaluation. Instead, practitioners were permitted to prescribe controlled substances via audio-video telemedicine if the prescriptions complied with the requirements outlined in DEA regulations as well as other provisions of federal and state law.
While the exceptions to the Ryan Haight Act were originally tied to the federal PHE declaration, the DEA, along with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), enacted two temporary rules that extended the prescribing exceptions for respective one-year periods. Similarly, this latest exception – formally titled “Third Temporary Extension of COVID-19 Telemedicine Flexibilities for Prescription of Controlled Medications” - will continue those same prescribing exceptions for approximately one more year, until the end of 2025.
As far as the rationale for the extension, the DEA noted that “[i]n 2023, in response to a set of proposed telemedicine rules [permanently implementing some of the prescribing exceptions arising during the COVID-19 PHE], DEA received more than 38,000 comments and held two days of public listening sessions. In light of that feedback and discussion, and to give DEA time to consider a new path forward for telemedicine,” the DEA consequently issued the latest extension, allowing the prescribing exceptions to remain in place for the next year.
The DEA has yet to provide an official date that the two proposed telemedicine rules will be finalized and implemented. After the rules are completed, the DEA and the Department of Health and Human Services then anticipate promulgating a final set of regulations to provide additional clarity on telemedicine prescribing requirements for controlled substances.
As new rules and regulations continue to develop, Dinsmore will keep you updated.
