Photograph: Kilito Chan/Getty Photos
For the third time, the DEA and the Division of Well being and Human Companies have expanded telemedicine flexibilities for the prescribing of managed medicines and sure narcotics.
The extension is till December 31, 2025.
The American Telemedicine Affiliation, telepsychiatry practices and others have supported maintaining these prescriptions accessible with out the necessity for an in-person go to.
Practitioners can prescribe schedule II-V managed medicines and schedule III-V narcotic managed medicines for the remedy of opioid use dysfunction withdrawal, by audio-only telemedicine encounters.
WHY THIS MATTERS
With out the extension within the Third Momentary Extension of Telemedicine Flexibilities for Prescribing Managed Drugs for COVID-19, these prescribing flexibilities would have ended on the finish of this yr.
In the course of the COVID-19 public well being emergency, HHS and DEA granted short-term waivers to the Ryan Haight Act to permit distant prescribing. The Ryan Haight On-line Pharmacy Shopper Safety Act of 2008 stipulated that managed medicines might solely be prescribed after an in-person analysis of that affected person.
To keep away from gaps in care in the course of the pandemic, these exceptions allowed the prescribing of managed medicines by telemedicine encounters even with out an in-person medical analysis of the affected person.
In 2023, after the DEA obtained greater than 38,000 feedback and held two days of public listening periods, the DEA and HHS prolonged present telemedicine flexibilities by the top of 2024.
This was the second extension granted by the DEA. The primary was because of expire on November 11, 2023.
THE BIGGEST TREND
The extension of different PHE waivers for telehealth and distant monitoring is anticipated to be acted upon by Congress earlier than the top of this yr.
The American Hospital Affiliation helps taking motion in each instances.
The $1.7 trillion Consolidated Appropriations Act that President Joe Biden signed into regulation in December 2022 included an extension of the telehealth waivers and the acute residence hospital care particular person waiver.
The Acute Hospital Care at Dwelling initiative permits hospitals to increase their capability to offer hospital care in a person's residence.
The waivers allowed individuals with Medicare to entry telehealth providers from their properties, with out the geographic or location limits that utilized earlier than PHE. Allowed suppliers to offer care remotely as a substitute of an in-person workplace go to.
E-mail the author: SMorse@himss.org