Healthcare providers have been waiting almost two decades for a clear regulatory pathway to prescribe controlled medications via telemedicine without first conducting an in-person exam. Could the journey end this year? 2026 may well be the year that healthcare providers get that special registration for prescribing by telehealth that they’ve always wanted. Or not. Clinicians have been waiting since 2008, with passage of the Ryan Haight Act Online Pharmacy Consumer Protection Act, for a federally approved process by which to use telehealth to prescribe controlled medications, along with the permanent approval to do so without first conducting an in-person exam of the patient. Virtual care advocates have long argued that this could greatly improve care plans for a wide range of treatments, including mental health and substance abuse care. The COVID-19 pandemic helped highlight the value of telehealth, and prompted the federal government to enact several waivers and flexibilities aimed at helping providers use virtual care to reduce hospital overcrowding and improve patient and provider safety. One of those flexibilities enabled providers to prescribe certain controlled substances via telehealth without the need for an initial in-person visit. Throughout this process, the DEA has sidestepped the requirement in the 2008 Ryan Haight Act that it create a special registration process so that providers would be qualified to prescribe via telehealth. googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display(“dfp-ad-hl_native1”); }); Since the pandemic, the online prescribing flexibility has been extended several times, while two different proposals have been floated to create permanent regulations (only one of which…
