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Website: www.compa-ny.org

COALITION OF MEDICATION ASSISTED TREATMENT PROVIDERS AND ADVOCATES  January 21, 2025

 Dear Friends and Colleagues,

I am sharing the important notification below from HHS and the DEA regarding finalizing the DEA rule for prescribing buprenorphine using telehealth.

This final rule may impact service delivery to many buprenorphine patients. We urge you to plan accordingly.

The final DEA rule will go into effect on February 18, 2025.

The notice has links to the final rule and FAQs.

Briefly, the DEA has ruled that a patient can receive up to six months of buprenorphine (maybe split into multiple prescriptions totaling six months) by telehealth.

The prescriber must check the state PDMP (for NYS – https://www.health.ny.gov/professionals/narcotic/prescription_monitoring/)

At the end of six months, the patient MUST be seen for an in-person medical evaluation.
A patient who was previously seen for an in-person medical evaluation is exempt.

Note from the FAQs:

Can I start another six-month supply after the previous six-month supply period ends?
No. The rule allows just one six-month period of audio-only or audio-visual prescribing per patient that you have never evaluated in person. This is not intended to be used repeatedly with breaks in between. This means, for example, that if a patient for whom you have prescribed three months of buprenorphine via telemedicine is lost to your practice for six months and then returns, the most you could prescribe by telemedicine before needing to see the patient in-person is three months. The six-month period is intended to be a total six-month supply.

Sincerely, Allegra Schorr
President

DEA and HHS Issue Final Telemedicine Rule for Buprenorphine Access
Friday, January 17, 2025

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), together with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), finalized telemedicine flexibility regulations for the prescribing of medications for opioid use disorder, including buprenorphine.

This final rule makes permanent the buprenorphine-related telemedicine flexibilities that DEA and HHS had extended through the end of 2025.

Learn more at Buprenorphine Telemedicine Prescribing: Questions and Answers.

Read More

Click here for the DEA Announcement