The ability of doctors to use telehealth to prescribe medicines like buprenorphine for patients with opioid use disorder may be in jeopardy.
While COVID-19 inspired an expanded use for caring for patients using telehealth, the regulatory flexibility that made remote prescribing possible expires at the end of 2024 and the federal Drug Enforcement Agency appears reluctant to call for its extension without modification.
In particular, an unreleased DEA proposal reportedly would limit individual physicians to issuing no more than half of their prescriptions virtually. Some people think this would detract from the overall effectiveness of telehealth in treating opioid use disorders because so much of that treatment is currently delivered by providers that primarily work virtually.
Learn more about possible next steps in the use of telehealth from the “Telehealth Draft Gets Side-Eyed” in this Politico newsletter.