For as long as the Secretary of the Department of Health’s designation of a public health emergency remains in effect, DEA-registered practitioners may issue prescriptions for buprenorphine and other controlled substances to patients for whom they have not conducted an in-person medical evaluation, provided all of the following conditions are met:
· The prescription is issued for a legitimate medical purpose by a practitioner acting in the usual course of his/her professional practice
· The telemedicine communication is conducted using an audio-visual, real-time, two-way interactive communication system.
· The practitioner is acting in accordance with applicable Federal and State law.
Provided the practitioner satisfies the above requirements, the practitioner may issue the prescription using any of the methods of prescribing currently available and in the manner set forth in the DEA regulations. Thus, the practitioner may issue a prescription either electronically (for schedules II-V) or by calling in an emergency schedule II prescription to the pharmacy, or by calling in a schedule III-V prescription to the pharmacy. [Learn more]
