Nathaniel Lacktman Weighs in on DEA Telemedicine Prescribing Extension
Foley & Lardner LLP partner Nathaniel Lacktman shared insight on the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency’s recent one-year extension of flexibilities for telemedicine prescribing in the STAT Health Tech newsletter.
Assessing the new extension and prospects for future rules, Lacktman noted how the DEA gave itself only one year to get new rules in place, citing in part a desire to “avoid incentivizing the investment necessary to develop new telemedicine companies that might encourage or enable problematic prescribing practices.” But one year is not a long time. To accomplish the task within that time frame, Lacktman advocates for a public-private work group with DEA to develop the rule.
He told STAT Health Tech that in 2018, President Trump signed into law the SUPPORT Act, which mandated the DEA promulgate a special registration rule to permit approved clinicians to write prescriptions for controlled substances via telemedicine without conducting an in-person exam. That law gave the DEA until October 2019 to promulgate the rule, but the DEA has yet to release anything. With a new DEA administrator assumed to be taking the helm post-election, stakeholders are waiting to see how the second Trump administration requires the DEA to comply with that federal law.
To learn more about the extension, click here for Foley’s Health Care Law Today article on the topic.
For more information on telemedicine, telehealth, virtual care, remote patient monitoring, digital health, and other health innovations, including the team, publications, and representative experience, visit Foley’s Telemedicine & Digital Health Industry Team.
