HealthLeaders Media January 8, 2026
Healthcare providers have been waiting almost two decades for a clear regulatory pathway to prescribe controlled medications via telemedicine without first conducting an in-person exam. Could the journey end this year?
2026 may well be the year that healthcare providers get that special registration for prescribing by telehealth that they’ve always wanted. Or not.
Clinicians have been waiting since 2008, with passage of the Ryan Haight Act Online Pharmacy Consumer Protection Act, for a federally approved process by which to use telehealth to prescribe controlled medications, along with the permanent approval to do so without first conducting an in-person exam of the patient. Virtual care advocates have long argued that this could greatly improve care plans for a wide range...
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