Telehealth prescription limits loom as in-person visits become required for Rx

New prescription rules: in-person visits required for highly addictive drugs

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – The government may overhaul the way millions of Americans get some prescriptions to fight the growing opioid epidemic.

The Drug Enforcement Administration plans to reinstate once longstanding federal requirements for powerful drugs that were waived once COVID-19 hit.

After three years of relying on telehealth doctor’s appointments over the pandemic, the Biden administration recently moved to require patients to see doctors in-person to get initial prescriptions for highly abused drugs.

The Drug Enforcement Administration says these new regulations would especially encompass pain management and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder treatment drugs including Vicodin, OxyContin, Adderall, and Ritalin, to name a few.

(R) KY – 2nd District Rep. Brett Guthrie said, “We don’t want to go back to the way it was. The genie is out of the bottle. It’s beneficial to American citizens to be able to get some of their services by having to drive to the doctor.”

Guthrie acknowledged, “What if you live in Green County and you have to drive to Bowling Green to the doctor? Sometimes you go to check on your doctor and then for follow-ups, you just do it over the telephone. However, we need to have checks and balances, because we can’t run the government under emergency powers. I mean, this is two years ago.”

The presidential administration is also cracking down on how doctors can prescribe other, less addictive drugs to new patients who they’ve never physically met.

To access buprenorphine, a narcotic used to treat opioid addiction and other substances like codeine, Xanax and Ambien, medical practitioners would be allowed to use telehealth visits to prescribe an initial one-month 30-day dose. However, following that, patients would need to schedule at least one in-person consultation with their doctors to access refills.

Bowling Green’s Center for Pain Management Doctor Ram Pasupuleti agrees with the administration, saying, “The rules that are going to come are not that bad. I, as a pain management physician, tend to agree. If I can see the patient once, examine him, then it gives me a lot more confidence the next time in prescribing medications.”

The FDA says they plan to have the new rule in place before the COVID-19 public health emergency expires on May 11, 2023.