Healthcare organizations, along with companies like Amazon, have written letters to Congress and the White House, urging them to ensure continued access to remote prescribing of controlled substances.
The letters, dated Sept. 10 and signed by more than 330 stakeholder organizations, were co-led by the American Telemedicine Association and ATA Action. In these letters, the organizations are asking Congress and the White House to safeguard pandemic-era flexibilities that allow for remote prescribing of controlled substances.
Specifically, the organizations are calling on House and Senate leaders to include a two-year extension of these remote prescribing flexibilities in an end-of-year legislative package. Additionally, they are urging the Biden Administration to collaborate with the Drug Enforcement Administration and other relevant agencies to use existing authorities to extend these flexibilities.
The extension, according to the organizations, would give the DEA additional time to establish a special registration pathway that balances access to critical medical care with proper enforcement measures.
Those who signed the letters include Amazon, Cleveland Clinic, Salt Lake City-based Intermountain Health, Nashville, Tenn.-based Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and Palo Alto, Calif.-based Stanford Medicine.
This push comes after the DEA extended certain COVID-19-era rules in 2023, allowing healthcare providers to continue prescribing controlled substances via telehealth through the end of 2024. These substances include stimulant medications for ADHD, anxiety treatments and medications for opioid use disorder.
Before the pandemic, patients were required to attend at least one in-person visit to receive prescriptions for controlled substances.