Telemental Health Laws App

This year’s Telemental Health Laws app update highlights a pivotal transition, as narrowed Medicare coverage, delayed Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) rulemaking on remote prescribing, and intensified federal enforcement create new operational and legal complexities for telehealth providers nationwide.

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Key Takeaways for Telehealth Providers and Organizations:

• Unstable Medicare rules make long-term planning difficult. Flexibilities can change with short notice, putting reimbursement, care models, and staffing decisions at risk for mental and behavioral health providers.
• Remote prescribing remains uncertain and complex. While telehealth prescribing is still allowed, permanent DEA rules are delayed. Providers face ongoing confusion about compliance, platform requirements, and state-by-state differences.
• Compliance risk is rising fast. Federal enforcement is expanding, with closer scrutiny of billing, documentation, and prescribing. One mistake can trigger audits, penalties, or legal exposure.

As the health care industry transitions beyond the COVID-19 public health emergency era, Congress continues to demonstrate bipartisan support for expanding access to telehealth. However, telehealth providers will invariably encounter certain legal and regulatory complexities as lawmakers work toward establishing a more permanent regulatory framework. At the same time, states are moving from broad expansion to refinement, focusing on reimbursement precision and licensure compacts.

Telehealth providers should continue to monitor federal and state policy developments—including Medicare coverage rules, DEA prescribing regulations, and False Claims Act enforcement priorities—while simultaneously investing in compliance infrastructure to operate in accordance with applicable federal and state laws, regulations, and policies.