The American Telemedicine Association released a statement on Friday saying that it applauds the Drug Enforcement Agency for posting a meeting notice on Friday that indicates that it is "openly considering" a special registration that would allow providers to prescribe medically necessary substances by telehealth.

WHY IT MATTERS
The DEA said in its notice that it is conducting public listening sessions to get input on prescribing controlled substances on telemedicine platforms and to learn about the availability and types of data that would be useful in detecting diversion and potential safeguards that could effectively prevent and detect the diversion.

"The ATA and ATA Action have the highest praise for the Administration and the DEA for their responsiveness to the 38,000-plus public comments they received expressing concern over proposed regulations that would severely limit remote prescribing of medically necessary controlled substances," said Kyle Zebley, senior vice president, public policy for the ATA and executive director of ATA Action.

The agency notes it is inviting anyone – including medical practitioners, patients, pharmacy professionals, industry members, law enforcement and other third parties – interested in sharing their viewpoints "concerning the advisability of permitting telemedicine prescribing of certain controlled substances without any in-person medical evaluation at all."

The DEA will host the listening sessions, which will also be broadcast live online, on Sept. 12 and 13 at its headquarters in Arlington, Virginia.

The agency said attendance requests will be by a lottery of attendance forms submitted on its Diversion Control Division website by Aug. 21 and is also accepting requests for in-person or video teleconference oral presentations.

THE LARGER TREND
In March, ATA Action submitted two comment letters outlining its concerns about the DEA’s proposed rule on post-PHE online Rx that would eliminate the remote prescribing of controlled substances in order to ensure that patients do not lose access to necessary treatments.

"Clinically, a valid prescription is a valid prescription and the fact that one was issued via telemedicine makes it no less so," the ATA said in its comments earlier this year.

The telehealth industry group also called the lack of a registry of controlled substances for its providers "a missed opportunity."

In May, the DEA extended telehealth prescribing flexibilities to review a deluge of comments it received.

"We take those comments seriously and are considering them carefully," said DEA Administrator Anne Milgram in a previous agency statement.

ON THE RECORD
"We welcome the news that they are openly considering a special registration process for the prescribing of controlled substances via telemedicine and stand ready to partner with the Administration and the DEA to ensure such a process would ensure access to needed treatments while including appropriate safeguards and accountability mechanisms," Zebley said in an ATA statement.

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