President Signs New Law Allowing Telemedicine Prescribing of Controlled Substances

[tommyguns2]

President Trump just signed into law the “Special Registration for Telemedicine Act of 2018” (the Act), requiring the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to activate a special registration allowing physicians and nurse practitioners to prescribe controlled substances via telemedicine without an in-person exam. The DEA has no more than one year to complete the task.

https://www.healthcarelawtoday.com/2018 ... o-go-live/

Just curious whether this might open up the TRT/HRT business.

 

[Ogre717]

And private labs for bloodwork. There's already a bunch of video conference doc options. This could be great

 

[SilverFox]

This does look interesting and how discreet can this be?

 

[FlyingDragon]

A doctor I know says there will be a ton of red tape for "special registration", she claims a very small percentage of doctors will sign up for this feature. She has yet to see what type of additional insurance will be required as there will be additional provider risk by not seeing a patient in person. She went on to say if someone really needs to get something prescribed that is controlled most doctor offices have the ability to do same day appointments.

Another thing to remember is most doctor practices lately are merging with large hospital chains as a way to keep costs down. Hospital chains wont take on this added risk of allowing their member doctors prescribing controlled substances without a face to face visit. 2 risky!

Nice idea but like most laws this was probably needed and useful years ago....

 

[SilverFox]

A doctor I know says there will be a ton of red tape for "special registration", she claims a very small percentage of doctors will sign up for this feature. She has yet to see what type of additional insurance will be required as there will be additional provider risk by not seeing a patient in person. She went on to say if someone really needs to get something prescribed that is controlled most doctor offices have the ability to do same day appointments.

Another thing to remember is most doctor practices lately are merging with large hospital chains as a way to keep costs down. Hospital chains wont take on this added risk of allowing their member doctors prescribing controlled substances without a face to face visit. 2 risky!

Nice idea but like most laws this was probably needed and useful years ago....

Agreed, it does sound dicey but going to see how this plays out. Getting TRT does sound like a good thing for this in my opinion and the more discreet the better if able to pay for the sessions in cash somehow rather than on your insurance.

 

[Ogre717]

Wife just visited the local grocery store that has a pharmacy/ urgent care. She video chat with a doc...

 

[PillarofBalance]

Some of the kinks will need to be worked out but this is unavoidable. In fact we are years behind on this imo.

 

[Mike_RN]

I think it’s a push to stop grandma from going to the family doctor 4x a month on taxpayer dime (Medicare). It’ll also breath some life back into our Opiod addiction problem since Big Pharma is seeing profits drop as the Medical Community tries to stop the epidemic it helped start (with BiG Pharma).

The shyster “pain management” guys are pushing hard for this I’m sure.

 

[CFM]

Nice idea but like most laws this was probably needed and useful years ago....

Obama had 8 years...

 

[Ogre717]

The pain management clinics need shut down. They are only making shit worse

 

[NavyChief]

https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/6 Link to review the bill, if, anyone would like to.

Most states already use a prescription monitoring system or PMP for all narcotics and shit. I know the military database accesses all states PMPs for narcotics and most states are going to a system like KASPER - Kentucky All Schedule Prescription Electronic Reporting. I know of 23 states using it and believe there are quite a few many more. I do not understand why they need to change a system already in place to monitor who is writing what, to whom and allows them with a simple change, to submit it electronically now. Either way, any change that could benefit us as a community, will also serve to monitor us more closely by the government as well as the docs.

 

[FlyingDragon]

Obama had 8 years...

Bush 1 and 2 had 12 years combined, whats the point?