The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), along with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Department of Veterans Affairs, proposed new regulations that could restrict virtual prescribers from providing treatment for their patients. These rules would mandate in-person consultations for a list of “controlled substances,” including Adderall and opioids such as oxycodone and buprenorphine. The proposed changes are currently in a 30-day public comment period, after which the DEA will make a final decision.

According to a study carried out by JAMA Psychiatry in 2022, expanded use of virtual consultations during the COVID-19 pandemic reduced the risk of opioid overdoses and showed increased access and adherence to OUD treatments. Several telepsychiatry providers such as Bicycle Health and Talkiatry have spoken out against this ruling, claiming that this law could put thousands of lives at risk by limiting patients’ access to their medications.      

Analyst QuickTake : Prescribing controlled medications has been a heavily debated topic spanning back to the late 1990s and early 2000s with the passing of the Ryan Haight Online Pharmacy Consumer Protection Act, which was put into place after a California teen of the same name died of an overdose from a medication received from an online pharmacy. Recently, the DEA has been cracking down on online prescribing of controlled medications, likely in response to news of online providers such as Cerebral and Done Global , who were found to have overly lax prescription practices for controlled medications.