Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has issued three rules addressing how to prescribe medication via telemedicine:
- Continuity of Care via Telemedicine for Veterans Affairs Patients: Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) practitioners, within the scope of their employment, are permitted to prescribe controlled substances (CS) via telemedicine to VA patients for whom they did not conduct an in-person medical evaluation. This rule’s effective date was delayed until December 31, 2025.
- Expansion of Buprenorphine Treatment via Telemedicine Encounter: Following a practitioner’s review of a patient’s prescription drug monitoring program data for the state in which the patient is located during the telemedicine visit, a practitioner is allowed to prescribe an initial six-month supply of Schedule III-V medications (“split amongst several prescriptions totaling six calendar months”) through audio-only communication. This rule’s effective date was delayed until December 31, 2025.
- Special Registrations for Telemedicine and Limited State Telemedicine Registrations: This rule establishes three types of Special Registrations for prescribing CS: Telemedicine Prescribing Registration, Advanced Telemedicine Prescribing Registration, and Telemedicine Platform Registration.
The new rules were developed in consultation with the United States Department of Health and Human Services and after significant input from the public. DEA received input during public listening sessions hosted in September 2023. Health care practitioners, experts, advocates, and patients shared their experiences and recommendations. DEA also carefully reviewed and considered more than 38,000 comments from the public in response to the original draft rule issued in 2023.