The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and Health and Human Services announced the third temporary expansion of COVID-19 telemedicine prescribing flexibilities for controlled drug prescribing, intended to prevent some patients from losing access to their telehealth prescribed medications.
The agencies also said they would continue to develop the final rule for virtual prescribing of controlled substances in the post-pandemic era, to be consistent with public health and safety and to limit the risks of drug abuse.
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT
With the year-end deadline looming and congressional and telehealth industry groups urging the DEA and HHS to jointly expand prescribing flexibility allowed under the original COVID-19 health emergency field of public health, the authorities agreed to grant a third temporary extension until December 31, 2025. .
The agencies said this in their statement on Friday notification published in the Federal Register that they want to “ensure a smooth transition for patients and practitioners who have become dependent on the availability of telemedicine for controlled medication prescriptions.”
In response to a set of proposed telemedicine rules last year, DEA received more than 38,000 comments, the agencies noted in a statement about the official announcement of the extension.
“We continue to carefully consider the input received and are working toward issuing a final set of telemedicine rules,” they said.
THE BIG TREND
Last year, as the COVID-19 public health emergency came to an end, the DEA expanded telemedicine flexibility around prescribing certain controlled medications while reviewing a flood of comments on its proposed remote prescribing plans of post-PHE.
The DEA’s original draft rule would have required affected patients to undergo in-person exams, and many of them were concerned that the restrictions would result in a return to the access barriers that many patients had experienced before the pandemic.
If agencies did not take action by December 31 and the second temporary extension expired, patients would have to have an in-person visit with their healthcare provider within 30 days or lose access to their medications.
Lawmakers and industry groups questioned why a registry for telemedicine providers is similar to the existing system for prescribing controlled substances — which the DEA is responsible for creating under the Substance Use-Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment for Patients and Communities Act of SUPPORT of 2018 Act – was not considered as part of the proposed rulemaking.
Last September, the agency held telemedicine listening sessions largely focused on creating special registration for telehealth prescribers and proposed a second comment period on its draft rule.
“DEA remains committed to carefully evaluating the responses received in response to the notice of proposed rulemaking, the listening sessions, consultations with tribal governments and meetings,” the notice on the new third extension through 2025 said.
ON THE RECORD
“This third temporary rule will provide providers sufficient time to comply with any new standards or safeguards that will ultimately be adopted in a final set of regulations,” the agency said in its notice.
Andrea Fox is editor-in-chief of Healthcare IT News.
Email: afox@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.