COVID-era telehealth rule prolonged to November

The Drug Enforcement Administration filed a rule on Tuesday that extends pandemic-era telehealth procedures for prescribing managed substances by way of November.

The rule, which allowed medical doctors to prescribe managed substances with out an in-person appointment, was set to run out Thursday when the general public well being emergency for the COVID-19 pandemic ends.

WHAT IS GOING AWAY WITH THE END OF THE COVID-19 EMERGENCY

The rule will enable for this flexibility to proceed by way of Nov. 11, 2023, a six-month extension from the unique expiration date for the coverage. The brand new rule additionally permits for individuals who have established a "practitioner-patient telemedicine relationship" a further one-year grace interval.

"If a affected person and a practitioner have established a telemedicine relationship on or earlier than November 11, 2023, the identical telemedicine flexibilities which have ruled the connection to that time are permitted till November 11, 2024," the DEA rule stated.

Healthcare corporations have pushed for the extra flexibility on medical prescriptions and have been vocally against earlier pushes by the Biden administration to roll again the coverage with the expiration of the general public well being emergency on Thursday.

When the rule filed on Tuesday was first proposed, healthcare corporations and advocates celebrated the reversal by the DEA, however they have been additionally have been weary of presumably rolling again the coverage sooner or later. Strain from these advocates will seemingly mount because the now-novel deadline approaches.

The World Well being Group declared final week that COVID-19 was now not a worldwide emergency, however it stated the pandemic was not over.

The US declared a public well being emergency for the coronavirus on Jan. 31, 2020. The federal authorities emergency associated to the pandemic ended final month, and the general public well being emergency ends Thursday.