Hospice & Home Health News 2026Jan08

POLICY WIN! - DEA Extends E-Prescribing Waiver

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, released the fourth temporary extension of these flexibilities. This new temporary extension 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 According to the agencies impact statement, “…unpublished data reviewed by Epic, Johns Hopkins, and Stanford: of an estimated 44.6 million prescriptions for controlled substances prescribed across 258 organizations in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. LeadingAge has advocated for the continuation of this policy on multiple occasions and we are excited to see the DEA move in a positive direction.

Here is your weekly  Home Health Weekly Recap from National.

Here is your weekly  Hospice Weekly Recap from National.