The Big Picture |
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Two federal rules published at the end of 2025 push health policy in two different directions. On January 1, 2026, DEA and HHS extended a temporary rule through December 31, 2026 that lets DEA‑registered prescribers use live video telemedicine to prescribe Schedule II–V controlled medicines to patients they have not seen in person, covering prescriptions back to May 12, 2023. That extension is aimed at avoiding a sudden loss of telemedicine access for people in rural areas, older adults, and others with mobility or transport barriers, but it is explicitly temporary — it expires at the end of 2026 unless renewed or made permanent. Six days later, the VA’s final rule, effective January 30, 2026, reverses post‑2022 changes: VA medical centers and CHAMPVA will not provide abortion services or counseling except when needed to save the patient’s life (CHAMPVA will pay for abortion only with a physician’s certification that the mother’s life is endangered).
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Both rules have immediate, concrete effects on who gets care and where they get it. The telemedicine extension imposes clear requirements: prescribers must hold a DEA registration, be authorized to prescribe the drug in question, use an interactive video system for new‑patient encounters, and follow all other prescription rules — starting January 1, 2026. The VA change takes effect January 30, 2026 and will push veterans and CHAMPVA beneficiaries who need abortion or counseling to seek those services outside the VA system, which could increase travel, cost, and time delays for time‑sensitive care. These moves illustrate a near‑term mix of preserving some pandemic‑era access while narrowing federal coverage in reproductive health.
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Pattern to Watch |
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A split pattern is emerging in federal health regulation: officials are preserving telehealth access for controlled‑substance prescribing in the near term while tightening reproductive‑health coverage in federal programs. The indicators are the January 1, 2026 telemedicine extension (covering May 12, 2023–Dec 31, 2026) and the January 30, 2026 VA rollback on abortion/ counseling and CHAMPVA coverage. If regulators issue further one‑year extensions or move to make telemedicine flexibilities permanent, that would signal continued federal support for remote care access; conversely, additional rulemaking or policy steps that restrict federal payment or provision of reproductive services in other programs would signal escalation of narrower federal coverage for those services.
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