Alliance for Connected Care’s advocacy in this space:
- Alliance Testifies at DEA Listening Session – September 2023
- Concerns Align on the DEA Telemedicine Rule – April 2023
- Alliance Submits Comments to the DEA Proposed Rule – March 29, 2023
- Alliance Joins Letter With Mental Health Groups Calling on DEA for Continued Access to Treatments Through Telehealth – March 28, 2023
- Alliance Executive Director Krista Drobac Op-Ed Featured on The Hill – January 6, 2023
- Alliance and Others Send Letter to DEA to Advance Proposed Rules on the Special Registration Telemedicine – November 11, 2022
- Alliance Letter to ONDCP Special Telemedicine Registration – April 9, 2021
- Alliance Joins Letter to Hill in Support of Temporary Extension of DEA Waiver in COVID Relief Package – December 15, 2020
- Group Letter on DEA Special Telemedicine Registration – October 26, 2020
About the Regulation:
The anticipated registration would enable a practitioner to deliver, distribute, dispense, or prescribe via telemedicine a controlled substance to a patient who has not been medically examined in-person by the prescribing practitioner. For example in the event of an opioid overdose, a patient might need a prescription for an opioid antagonist such as naloxone from a provider who has never examined the patient in-person prior to the telemedicine encounter. The Act also expressly exempts certain practitioners from needing to obtain a special registration for telemedicine in each state where the entities and practitioners choose to practice.
Congress did establish three general requirements that practitioners must meet while using the special registration to deliver, distribute, dispense, or prescribe controlled substances via telehealth:
- The practitioners must demonstrate a legitimate need for the special registration.
- The practitioners must be registered to deliver, distribute, dispense, or prescribe controlled substances in the state where the patient is located.
- The practitioners must maintain compliance with federal and state laws when delivering, distributing, dispensing, and prescribing a controlled substance.