The Department of Health and Human Services and the Drug Enforcement Administration extended telemedicine flexibilities for prescribing of controlled medicines through Dec. 31, 2025.
Under the Ryan Haight Online Pharmacy Consumer Protection Act of 2008, a prescribing practitioner—subject to certain exceptions—may prescribe controlled medications to a patient only after conducting an in-person evaluation of that patient. In response to the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency declared on Jan. 31, 2020, DEA granted temporary exceptions to the Ryan Haight Act and DEA’s implementing regulations.
To prevent lapses in care, these exceptions allowed for the prescribing of controlled medications via telemedicine encounters even when the prescribing practitioner had not conducted an in-person medical evaluation of the patient. These telemedicine flexibilities authorized practitioners to prescribe schedule II-V controlled medications via audio-video telemedicine encounters, including schedule III-V narcotic controlled medications approved by FDA for maintenance and withdrawal management treatment of opioid use disorder via audio-only telemedicine encounters, provided that such prescriptions otherwise comply with the requirements outlined in DEA guidance documents, DEA regulations, and applicable Federal and State law.
You can read the details of the extensions in a filing from the agencies here.
