Haight Act News Today

We bring you Vital Signs, a curated, one-stop resource on the most notable digital health law updates from our U.S. and global contributors.

For more than a decade, Congress, clinicians, and policymakers have been requesting implementation of a special registration pathway that would allow registered clinicians to prescribe buprenorphine without an in-person visit requirement. Its clear to us that the time to implement the pathway is now.

While this is just a temporary extension of COVID flexibilities, it can be considered a win for patients and clinicians using telemedicine.

Proposed rules would permit a telehealth provider to prescribe only up to a 30-day supply of a Schedule III-V non-narcotic controlled substance or buprenorphine through telehealth without the patient first being evaluated in person by a provider.

President Biden announced he would not extend the COVID19 Public Health Emergency beyond its May 11 expiration. Tis will bring about the termination of several policy waivers and discretionary enforcement that expanded health care programs, payments, and prescribing flexibilities

Detractors say that the Drug Enforcement Administration's proposed rule is inviting people to acquire controlled substances through their own methods online.

CVS AGREES TO BUY OAK STREET IN $10.6 BILLION DEAL: CVS Health Corp. has agreed to buy Chicago-based Oak Street Health Inc. for an enterprise value of $10.6 billion, as the pharmacy giant pushes deeper into health care with its second major acquisition in the space in as many years.  …

With the end of the public health emergency, clinicians won’t be able to prescribe controlled substance medications via telehealth without an in-person visit.

Patients are struggling to obtain essential medications after an early-pandemic healthcare transformation

The suicide of Eljah Hanson, 21,of Tacoma, Washington, is being blamed on his Adderall prescription by his mother. His family reports he received an Adderall prescription too easily.