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Rural Health
News by Topic: Behavioral health

Jan 17, 2025 - Notice of final rule from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) authorizing the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) healthcare practitioners acting within the scope of their VA employment to prescribe controlled substances via telemedicine to a VA patient with whom they have not conducted an in-person medical evaluation. VA practitioners can prescribe controlled substances to VA patients if another VA practitioner has previously conducted an in-person medical evaluation of the VA patient at any time, subject to certain conditions. This final rule is effective February 18, 2025.
Source: Federal Register
Jan 17, 2025 - Notice of final rule from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) amending their regulations to increase access to buprenorphine treatment for opioid use disorders (OUD) through a telemedicine encounter. This rule expands the circumstances under which individual providers are authorized to prescribe buprenorphine for OUD via telemedicine, including an audio-only telemedicine encounter. This final rule is effective February 18, 2025.
Source: Federal Register
Jan 17, 2025 - Notice of proposed rulemaking from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) proposing regulatory changes aimed at expanding patient access to controlled substance medications via telemedicine while mitigating the risks of diversion associated with such expansion. Proposed changes would establish a Special Registration framework and authorize three types of Special Registration that would allow more comprehensive prescribing, including prescribing of Schedule II and narcotic and non-narcotic controlled substances in limited circumstances, by properly registered physicians and mid-level practitioners and dispensing by online telemedicine platforms that constitute covered online telemedicine platforms. Comments are due by March 18, 2025.
Source: Federal Register
Jan 15, 2025 - Announces a new grant to combat the opioid epidemic in rural Georgia by training, supporting, and compensating 50 rural pharmacists in dispensing naloxone in addition to community education regarding local resources. Describes increases in overdose deaths and the use of fentanyl in Georgia.
Source: UGA Today
Jan 13, 2025 - Notice from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) making technical and typographic corrections to the November 27, 2024, final rule. This correcting amendment is effective January 8, 2025, and is applicable beginning January 1, 2025.
Source: Federal Register
Jan 13, 2025 - Highlights a new report on mental healthcare awareness among and access for veterans in New York. Discusses reductions in stigma, rural community focused networks, rural culture, and telehealth.
Source: North Country Public Radio
Jan 13, 2025 - Outlines the findings of a new study on the relationship between opioid use and homelessness in rural populations. Discusses the difficulty of accurately counting the number of homeless individuals in rural areas, and how this can lead to inadequate allocations of funding and resources.
Source: Georgia State University News
Jan 10, 2025 - Analyzes Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data to discuss alcohol habits by region and rurality. Notes the challenges with measuring alcohol habits in surveys relying on self-reported health measures.
Source: The Daily Yonder
Jan 9, 2025 - Discusses stigma and the gaps in support for people who are both homeless and drug users in a rural Missouri community.
Source: Public News Service
Jan 8, 2025 - Describes a newly funded project to increase the number of mental health professionals in rural New York schools by training social work graduate students in rural schools. Notes that rural students have higher rates of depression and isolation than urban students and less access to mental healthcare.
Source: WKBW