Repost-DEA Extends Effective Date of Telemedicine Final Rules

(Originally posted 3/3/2025)

DEA proposed to extend the effective date of final rules on telemedicine buprenorphine treatment and telemedicine continuity of care for Veterans Affairs patients. This allows for appropriate time to ensure both rules address continual patient accessibility to medical care.

On Jan. 17, 2025, the DEA and Department of Health and Human Services published two final rules related to the practice of telemedicine. These final rules were scheduled to become final on Feb. 18, 2025. The effective dates of the two final rules have now been delayed until March 21, 2025.

Read more about the expansion of buprenorphine treatment via telemedicine encounter and continuity of care via telemedicine for Veterans Affairs patients.

Telemedicine Final Rules In September 2023, DEA hosted public listening sessions and received comments from 58 healthcare practitioners, experts, advocates, patients, and other members of the public to inform DEA’s regulations on prescribing controlled substances via telemedicine. All comments and presentations became part of the official the official record for the purposes of the rulemaking.

(Additional information posted 4/10/2025)

The final rule delays the effective date of Audio Only Buprenorphine and VA Telemedicine Exemption to December 31, 2025. Both rules had an original effective date of February 18, 2025.

The rules amend regulations to allow:

DEA-registered practitioners to prescribe schedule III-V controlled substances for the treatment of opioid use disorder via a telemedicine encounter, including an audio-only telemedicine encounter, and
Department of Veterans Affairs practitioners to prescribe schedule II-V controlled substances via telemedicine to patients previously seen in person by another VA provider.

Read the final rule in the Federal Register: https://ow.ly/fFHo50VsmO1