Online drug prescription companies are celebrating the Drug Enforcement Administration's delay of a proposed rule to roll back coronavirus-era telehealth prescription flexibility.

The DEA's proposed rule would restrict the ability of doctors virtually to prescribe medications such as Adderall and opioids, requiring in-person doctor's visits for controlled substances. However, after receiving 38,000 comments from the public, DEA Administrator Anne Milgram decided to delay the rule.

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Companies have applauded the DEA's move to delay the restriction because it will allow them to continue prescribing drugs in the heavily deregulated environment that has marked the coronavirus era. However, they are also wary because the delay does not reverse the DEA's intent to put up "safeguards."

Psychedelic telemedicine company Mindbloom, which provides ketamine online for mental health therapy, applauded the delay, saying, "We are grateful that the DEA is taking the time to consider the comments from patients and providers across the healthcare spectrum."

"As the mental health crisis in America continues to worsen — with nearly 1 in 4 adults suffering from mental illness in the past year and less than 50% receiving treatment — the federal government must expand access to clinically-appropriate treatments and commit to supporting telehealth so that individuals suffering from depression, anxiety, and other conditions can access evidence-based treatment options, like ketamine therapy, that work well for them," Mindbloom general counsel Michael Petegorsky continued.

The rule is aimed at combating the overprescription of drugs and concerns that companies that prescribe controlled substances online are not conducting adequate assessments of patients before prescribing drugs.

Online prescribers and telehealth advocates have been critical of the move, citing the restriction's effect on drugs such as buprenorphine, which is often prescribed to help with opioid addiction, and online psychiatry.

"Instead of taking inspiration from more modern state-level prescribing policy already introduced in Connecticut and Florida, the rules reinstate obsolete and counterproductive in-person requirements under the guise of novelty," co-founder and CEO of virtual psychiatry company Talkiatry Robert Krayn said in response to the DEA proposal. "There is nothing novel about sending vulnerable patients back into the dark ages of care delivery."

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The rule makes a special exception for buprenorphine, allowing a 30-day supply to be prescribed online before an in-person examination must take place.

Milgram and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra touted the change as an "expansion" of telemedicine flexibilities after the scheduled end of the coronavirus public health emergency declaration.