DEA, HHS finalize rule allowing telehealth drug treatment

Source: Roll Call

Posted January 15, 2025 at 3:40pm


The Biden administration Wednesday finalized a long-awaited rule laying out how some health care providers can prescribe gold-standard opioid use disorder treatments through telehealth. The final rule from the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration within the Department of Health and Human Services allows providers who have not had an in-person visit with a patient to prescribe six months’ worth of buprenorphine through telehealth, including through audio-only visits.

Afterward, to continue prescribing buprenorphine through telehealth, providers can conduct an in-person medical evaluation or continue treating the patient “via another form of telemedicine.” The final changes means a patient “will not necessarily need to be seen in-person by the prescribing practitioner at any point.” The federal government initially eased restrictions on prescribing controlled substances via telemedicine during the COVID-19 pandemic, and telehealth has since boomed in popularity.

Advocates have said the flexibilities, which allowed providers to prescribe buprenorphine to patients they haven’t seen in person, were necessary to expand access to drugs that treat opioid use disorder. The DEA began rule-making in March 2023, ahead of the end of the public health emergency, to find a path forward after the pandemic.

When the public health emergency ended in May 2023, the DEA temporarily extended those flexibilities. The agency most recently extended the flexibility for the third time in November, with them now set to expire Dec. 31, 2025. The final rule charts a path forward to allow providers to prescribe buprenorphine to patients they haven’t seen in person.

Read more: https://rollcall.com/2025/01/15/dea-hhs-finalize-rule-allowing-telehealth-drug-treatment/