APA Urges Expanded Telemedicine Prescribing Rules in DEA Listening Session

Telemedicine prescribing has expanded access to psychiatric medications —including controlled substances such as buprenorphine, which are crucial to fighting the opioid epidemic. So said psychiatrist Shabana Khan, M.D., yesterday during apublic meeting hosted by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) about its proposed regulations on prescribing controlled substances via telemedicine. Khan, who was invited to speak at the meeting on behalf of APA, is director of child and adolescent telepsychiatry at NYU Langone Health, an assistant professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, and chair of the APA Committee on Telepsychiatry.The proposed rules would curtail telemedicine prescribing flexibilities extended to physicians during the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency, for instance by requiring an in-person visit for the prescribing of controlled substances. “Rather than a mandatory blanket requirement [for an in-person visit], the need for an in-person examination of a patient really should be left to the clinical discretion of a practitioner who has the knowledge, skills, and experience to make that decision,” Khan said. “Reducing flexibility in modalities of care increases inequity, forcing practitioners to cherry-pick patients that have the ability to travel to in-person care.”She added also that telemedicine has not been shown to increase diversion of controlled substances.TheDEA sponsored the listening session, which began yesterday and...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: APA controlled substances DEA DEA rules diversion flexibilities opioid epidemic Shabana Khan telemedicine Source Type: research