The Impact of DEA Telehealth Extensions on Patient Access

In this Pharmaceutical Executive video interview, Peter Ax, CEO of UpScriptHealth, discusses the future of telehealth and its potential to revolutionize healthcare. He highlights the increasing complexity of cases being handled through telehealth platforms, including specialized treatments and diagnostic testing.

Ax emphasizes the importance of streamlining access to care and reducing administrative burdens for patients and providers. He discusses the role of telehealth in addressing the challenges of prior authorizations and ensuring timely access to medications.

The conversation also touches on the impact of the DEA's recent extensions for telehealth prescribing of controlled substances, which is expected to expand access to various treatments, including sleep aids, weight loss medications, and men's health products.

Furthermore, Ax discusses the potential of AI to enhance telehealth services, from improving patient communication to predicting future healthcare needs. He acknowledges the challenges of navigating a complex regulatory landscape and advocates for a more streamlined and unified approach to telehealth regulations.

Given the recent DEA extensions of telehealth for controlled substances, what new treatment modalities or patient populations do you anticipate will become more accessible through telehealth in 2025?

What we've seen most recently is because of the DEA allowing there to be prescribing of controlled substances for yet another year before. There's real hard and fast rules about it. We've seen an expansion in demand for sleep type products to be direct to patient. We've seen some weight loss products that are that are controlled substances wanting to have a direct patient model. We've seen some Men's Health, some products in the men's health area, which sometimes includes things like testosterone. So those are the types of products we've seen. I suspect we'll see even more categories of products, as long as we can prescribe controlled substances safely and provide follow up care as is appropriate, which is really an important aspect of when you're dealing with controlled substances is follow up care.