In a major win for hospices and other aging services providers who rely on e-prescribing flexibilities to quickly establish virtual relationships with patients who have emergent needs for scheduled substances like opioids, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) on December 30, 2025  made public its decision to delay yet again a decision on prescription of controlled medicines, including telemedicine flexibilities for the prescription of controlled medicines.

The action, which brings to four the DEA’s number of temporary extensions, ends on December 31, 2026.

According to the agencies impact statement, “…unpublished data reviewed by Epic, Johns Hopkins, and Stanford: of an estimated 44.6 million prescriptions for controlled substances prescribed across 258 organizations in 2024, more than 7 million, approximately 16 percent, were issued without a prior in-person medical evaluation.”

Based on the information released in the temporary extension, we anticipate DEA will publish a new proposed rule in 2026 to update the requirements of telemedicine prescribing of controlled substances.