On December 31, 2024, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) will end the COVID-era flexibility on electronic prescribing of controlled substances. The public has yet to see the long-awaited DEA regulations that would implement a special registration telemedicine authority. If the current telehealth flexibility expires in the next four months, there will not be sufficient time for physicians and patients across the country to significantly adjust care plans without compromising continuity of care.

AACAP urges the Administration to safeguard youth access to mental health care via telemedicine and ensure that no new DEA regulation restricts access to child and adolescent mental health care.

The ongoing stimulant shortage already impedes patient access to critical medications needed to keep children in school, and no patient or their family should face additional barriers in accessing necessary stimulant medications or any other Schedule II or III medications approved for the treatment of mental health or substance use disorders.

AACAP provided feedback to the DEA on its 2023 proposed rule regarding online prescribing via telehealth without an initial in-person visit and participated in the DEA’s stakeholder listening session on this issue. It is our hope that the Administration fully acknowledges that during a national children’s mental health crisis, limiting access to telepsychiatry—a modality that has become essential for child and adolescent psychiatrists to reach underserved patient populations—would run counter to the Unity Agenda goal of strengthening our nation’s mental health system.

AACAP calls on the Administration to extend the current DEA regulations governing the prescribing of controlled substances via telehealth without an initial in-person visit for an additional two years, starting January 1, 2025.

Read AACAP's letters to the White House, U.S. House, and U.S. Senate requesting an extension to current DEA telehealth prescribing flexibilities.

###

The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry promotes the healthy development of children, adolescents, and families through advocacy, education, and research. Child and adolescent psychiatrists are the leading physician authority on children’s mental health. www.aacap.org