DEA Update
Drug Enforcement Administration: Public Listening Session (9/12-13) - The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) held a two-day listening session and received comments from health care practitioners, experts, advocates, patients, and other members of the public to inform DEA's regulations on prescribing controlled substances via telemedicine. DEA also announced another comment period this fall for written comments before the telemedicine rules are finalized.
Selected News Coverage:
MedCity News: How 4 Mental Health Firms Want the DEA to Handle Virtual Prescribing of Controlled Substances (9/12) - Talkiatry, Array Behavioral Care, Iris Telehealth and Quartet Health sent a letter to the DEA asking for a special registration process that would allow for the prescribing of certain controlled medications via telemedicine. The four companies offer virtual psychiatry services, and while normally competitors, decided to band together to help patients maintain access to virtual prescribing of controlled substances, as well as to ensure their safety.
MedPage Today: DEA Gets an Earful About Telehealth Prescribing of Controlled Substances (9/12) - Psychiatry groups were among those concerned about the proposed 30-day prescribing limit. "The 30-day initiation period would not be adequate given the current wait times" for psychiatric care in many places, said Shabana Khan, MD, a psychiatrist who spoke on behalf of both the American Psychiatric Association and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists. The psychiatry groups also oppose a DEA proposal to require telemedicine prescribers to note on the prescription that it was accessed via telemedicine.
Behavioral Health Business: We Consider This to be Our New Normal (9/12) - In total, the DEA lined up 61 commentators to present. Commenters presented to DEA Administrator Milgram and Deputy Assistant Administrator Prevoznik, who also asked follow-up questions. "I think that we have the opportunity to resolve a special registration process under this administration, that’s been evading multiple administrations for decades." - Talkiatry
Fierce Healthcare: Doctors and Lawmakers Say a Special Registration for Telehealth Prescribing is Overdue (9/13) - Doctors and telepsychiatry groups urged the DEA to create a "special registration" pathway to enable practitioners to prescribe controlled substances via telemedicine without a prior, in-person medical evaluation. The current proposed requirements will be operationally and technically burdensome to implement especially for complex health systems, Helen Hughes, M.D., medical director of the Office of Telemedicine at Johns Hopkins Medicine.
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