More than 80 Organizations Call on DEA to Finalize Special Registration for Telemedicine
The Alliance worked to convene over 80 organizations in a letter to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) calling on the DEA to finalize the special registration for telemedicine.
Background on the DEA Telemedicine Regulation
Special registration to prescribe controlled substances through telemedicine was originally called for in the Ryan Haight Act of 2008. The Ryan Haight Act amended the Controlled Substances Act to prohibit the delivery, distribution or dispensing of a controlled substance by “means of the Internet” without first conducting an in-person exam. The Act directed the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) to create a special registration for telemedicine with the goal of increasing patient’s access to practitioners who can prescribe controlled substances via telehealth in limited circumstances. On April 6, 2009, when implementing the Ryan Haight Act (at 74 FR 15603) the DEA stated that the agency would issue a separate rule regarding the special registration for telemedicine. It has not yet done so.
Congress returned to the issue in the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act, signed into law on October 24, 2018, which included a provision requiring the Attorney General – in consultation with the Secretary of Health and Human Services – to within one year promulgate final regulations related to a Special Registration for Telemedicine. As you know it was not released in October 2019. The Fall 2019 Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions announced the Special Registration to Engage in the Practice of Telemedicine proposed rulemaking for December 2019 – another deadline that has now been missed.
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.
Click here to view the letter.