PRORULE – 2026-05-26

RULE – 2026-05-13

The telemedicine cliff got pushed back again. The DEA’s Fourth Temporary Extension keeps current prescribing rules in place through December 31, 2026. But that date isn’t as far off as it sounds, and treating it that way is a mistake. What can you actually do right now? You can prescribe Schedule II–V controlled substances through…

Telehealth platforms that prescribe controlled substances need to focus on December 31, 2026 — not the unfinalized “Special Registration” rule everyone’s been waiting on. And federal flexibility isn’t the whole picture: some states are already moving faster than the DEA. What Is the December 2026 Telehealth Prescribing Deadline? It’s the expiration date of the DEA’s…

Yes, but the headline change isn’t really a CMS decision at all. It’s that Congress let Medicare telehealth coverage lapse twice in the past nine months before finally locking in a genuine multi-year extension. If you missed either lapse, here’s what actually happened and where things stand now. What Actually Happened to Medicare Telehealth Coverage…

Yes, but the rule that actually matters most for psychiatry platforms hasn’t taken effect yet. DEA’s pending Special Registration proposal would give psychiatrists a path that generalist telehealth platforms wouldn’t get, and that’s a meaningful competitive detail worth understanding now, before it’s final. What’s Actually in Effect Right Now for Psychiatric Telehealth Prescribing? The operative…

The rule you’ve probably heard about, “Click-to-Cancel,” is dead. A federal court struck it down. But that’s not the same as telehealth subscription marketing being unregulated, and there’s a separate FTC rule with real penalties already attached that most providers have never heard of at all. Is the FTC’s “Click-to-Cancel” Rule Actually in Effect? No….

The COVID-era HIPAA exemption for telehealth ended back in 2023, but a lot of providers are still operating like it’s in effect. Most of what OCR is actually finding isn’t exotic. It’s basic gaps that built up once nobody was paying close attention anymore. Why Can’t You Still Use FaceTime or Regular Zoom for Sessions?…

DEA’s compounding rules aren’t really about whether a pharmacy can compound a controlled substance. They’re about who’s doing it, how much, and whether the volume crosses from individualized dispensing into something that looks more like unregistered manufacturing. What Does DEA Actually Allow a Pharmacy to Compound? Under DEA’s compounding policy, a registered pharmacy can compound…

Federal DEA and HHS telemedicine rules set a floor, not a ceiling. Most of what actually trips providers up isn’t federal at all, it’s the state-level layer sitting on top that federal rules were never designed to touch. What Do Federal Rules Actually Cover? The Ryan Haight Act and DEA’s telemedicine exceptions, including the current…