The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and Health and Human Services announced the Third Temporary Extension of COVID-19 Telemedicine Flexibilities for Prescription of Controlled Medications, meant to prevent some patients from losing access to their telehealth-prescribed medications. 

The agencies also said they would continue to develop the final rule governing the virtual prescribing of controlled substances in the post-pandemic era to be consistent with public health and safety and to mitigate drug diversion risks.

WHY IT MATTERS

With an end-of-year deadline looming, and Congress and telehealth industry groups urging DEA and HHS to jointly extend prescribing flexibilities allowed under the original COVID-19 public health emergency, the agencies agreed to grant a third temporary extension through December 31, 2025.

The agencies said Friday in their notice published in the Federal Register that they want "to ensure a smooth transition for patients and practitioners that have come to rely 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 notice of the extension.

"We continue to carefully consider the input received and are working to promulgate a final set of telemedicine regulations," they said.

THE LARGER TREND

Last year when the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency was set to expire, the DEA extended telemedicine flexibilities around the prescription of certain controlled medications while it reviewed a deluge of comments on its proposed plans for post-PHE remote prescribing guardrails.

The DEA's initial draft rule would require affected patients to have in-person exams, and many of them were concerned that restrictions would result in a return to access barriers many patients experienced before the pandemic. 

If the agencies did not act before December 31 and the second temporary extension expired, patients would be required to have an in-person visit with their provider within 30 days or lose access to their medications. 

Lawmakers and industry groups questioned why a registry for telemedicine providers similar to the existing prescribing of controlled substances system – which the DEA has a responsibility to create under the 2018 Substance Use-Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment for Patients and Communities Act or SUPPORT Act – had not been considered as part of its proposed rulemaking. 

Then 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 comments received in response" to its notice of proposed rulemaking, the listening sessions, consultations with tribal governments and meetings, it said in the notice about the new third extension through 2025.

ON THE RECORD

"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," the agency said in its notice.

Andrea Fox is senior editor of Healthcare IT News.
Email: afox@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.