States Allowing Telehealth Prescriptions for Opioid Use Disorder

National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP): States Allowing Telehealth Prescriptions for Opioid Use Disorder

Early on in the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government implemented several telehealth flexibilities to allow states to maximize access to medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD). While these flexibilities remain allowable until the end of the federal public health emergency (PHE), state approaches to prescribing MOUD via telehealth currently vary greatly. NASHP produced a map of current telehealth MOUD state policy 18 months into the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently, roughly 50 percent of states explicitly allow MOUD via telehealth, and three have ended provisions for MOUD via telehealth.