Personalized Health Association Urges Timely, Workable Final Rule on Telemedicine Prescribing

Physician, pharmacy and telemedicine leaders presented an integrated view of care, in the federal regulatory review of DEA’s permanent rule

WASHINGTON DC, DC, UNITED STATES, October 5, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- With the temporary federal flexibilities that allow telemedicine prescribing of controlled medications set to expire December 31, 2026, the Personalized Health Association (PHA) is urging federal regulators to finalize the Drug Enforcement Administration’s permanent rule on schedule and to ensure it is workable for the patients, physicians, telehealth platforms and pharmacies it will govern.

PHA is an integrated advocacy organization that brings together patients, providers, telehealth platforms and pharmacy providers. On September 29, 2026, PHA met with the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), in addition to staff from the Department of Justice and the Drug Enforcement Administration, which is reviewing the final rule under Executive Order 12866, and described how the rule would operate across the full continuum of care, from the telehealth visit to the filled prescription.

Since 2020, temporary federal flexibilities have allowed patients to receive prescriptions for mental health, pain, sleep and addiction treatment through secure video visits, without a prior in-person examination. PHA supports finalizing the permanent rule on its November timeline, but calls for revisions to ensure the rule is effective, deregulating, cost efficient, and implements common sense.

Jonathan Mordis, Pharm.D., PHA Pharmacy Advisor and chief executive of a chain of nationwide compounding pharmacies, addressed how the rule would function at the point of dispensing. “Pharmacies already report every controlled prescription we fill to state prescription monitoring programs,” said Mordis. “Requiring that same data again, in a second format, adds cost and diverts time better spent on patient care. Identity verification belongs at the start of care, before a prescription is written, not downstream at the pharmacy.”

“Accessible patient care depends on these flexibilities every day. Preserving access and affordability is essential to ensuring continuity of care,” said Jimmy St. Louis, President and Board Member of PHA. “We support finalizing this rule on schedule in a way that preserves responsible patient access and provides a clear, practical roadmap for expanding the guidelines.”

“Our north star is the patient-provider partnership,” said Bill Moses, Founder and Director of PHA. “We support the DEA’s responsibility to prevent diversion and misuse, and protecting patients also means preserving their access to appropriate care. The final rule should preserve the provider’s clinical judgment and the patient’s informed participation in treatment decisions, within appropriate safeguards and the law.”

PHA’s recommendations fall into three areas. Each reduces cost and administrative burden without removing any safeguard on which the rule relies:
Eliminate duplicative requirements. A single national DEA registration in place of separate state-by-state registrations and fees, and reliance on the dispensing data pharmacies already report to state prescription monitoring programs.

Align requirements with current practice and technology. Prescription database checks based on the patient’s home-state program until a single national query tool is available; identity verification consistent with state law; a telemedicine platform definition focused on entities whose compensation is tied to prescribing; and standards for the most tightly controlled medications grounded in the proposed rule’s specialist and treatment-purpose requirements.
Ensure continuity of care. A compliance date 12 months after publication, with current flexibilities extended in the interim, so that no patient in active treatment experiences a lapse on January 1.

Each recommendation was also requested on the public record by leading medical, hospital and pharmacy organizations. DEA’s own analysis estimates more than 145,000 new registrations and $24 million in fees in the rule’s first year. PHA’s seven recommendations are available here. The meeting, its participants and PHA’s submission are part of the public record that OMB maintains at reginfo.gov.

“We strongly support prescription monitoring,” said Henry J. Legere III, MD, PHA Medical Advisor and founder of JRNYS Wellness. “We are not asking the DEA to weaken it. We are asking that the requirement reflect the checks clinicians can perform today, with the nationwide requirement taking effect once the technology exists.”

Candace McDonald
Personalized Health Association
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