On May 10, 2023, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) extended by up to 18 months the authorization, established during the now-ended COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE), for certain healthcare practitioners to prescribe controlled substance medications without first having conducted an in-person medical evaluation of a patient. Pursuant to DEA’s temporary rule, a DEA-registered practitioner may issue through November 11, 2023, a telemedicine prescription for a Schedule II-V controlled substance in accordance with the PHE prescribing standards (e.g., must be for a legitimate medical purpose; issued using a specified, interactive telecommunications system). Thereafter, telemedicine prescribing can continue for one additional year (through November 11, 2024) in telemedicine relationships established by November 11, 2023. In parallel, DEA will continue to evaluate the more than 38,000 comments submitted concerning its March 2023 proposed permanent rules to establish telemedicine prescribing standards for controlled substances. The temporary rule extension is intended to accommodate very significant practical limitations on having telemedicine patients complete in-person medical evaluations, yet also seeks to “disincentivize [due to the period’s brevity] the creation of telemedicine companies that may seek to engage in problematic prescribing practices.”

The temporary rule can be found here. King & Spalding’s Client Alert on the March 2023 proposed rule is available here.