The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) have issued a fourth temporary extension of telemedicine flexibilities through December 31, 2026, allowing healthcare providers to prescribe certain controlled medications via telehealth without requiring an initial in-person visit — one of several telehealth extensions Compassion & Choices is actively advocating to make permanent.
This extension protects access to care for people who rely on telehealth — and it matters most for people at the end of life, when travel, immobility, physical burden, and geography can make in-person care difficult or impossible. Without this extension, patients would have suddenly lost the ability to receive certain prescriptions through telehealth, forcing them back to in-person visits and disrupting their ongoing care.
Compassion & Choices has been actively engaged in shaping this policy because expanded telehealth access supports patient-directed care and helps reduce inequities in how and where people receive care. Visit our telehealth page to learn more about our work.
For people living with serious or terminal illness, even a short trip to a clinic can be exhausting, painful, or unsafe. Frailty, distance from providers, and limited energy often turn medical appointments into significant obstacles.
Telehealth helps remove those barriers. It allows people to connect with healthcare providers from home, manage symptoms and pain more easily, and stay engaged in their care without unnecessary stress. For families, telehealth can reduce anxiety, improve communication, and make it easier to coordinate care during an already challenging time.
Telemedicine can change the dynamic of medicine itself — empowering patients to engage as fully informed decision-makers in their own care. Where medical aid in dying is authorized, telehealth can also support counseling, eligibility discussions, symptom management, and care coordination throughout the end-of-life process which is especially meaningful for people whose health or location makes travel difficult and who want care that prioritizes comfort, dignity, and autonomy.
Most importantly, telehealth gives people more control over when and how they receive care, supporting decisions that reflect their values, priorities, and goals at the end of life.
Access to care is only part of the picture. What matters just as much is what happens once someone is receiving care and whether their wishes are known, documented, and respected across settings.
A separate federal measure under consideration that Compassion & Choices has publicly endorsed aims to strengthen advance care planning by ensuring hospitals give patients and caregivers expanded, meaningful opportunities to discuss goals of care and capture existing preferences in medical records. This effort builds on the Patient Self-Determination Act, which established patients’ rights to be informed about medical decision-making and to have their wishes documented.
Securing stronger advance care planning standards helps ensure that patient preferences travel with them and continue to guide care no matter where someone is being treated. While the public comment period for this proposal has closed, it represents progress worth watching and aligns closely with Compassion & Choices’ long-term goals.
Compassion & Choices will continue working at the federal level to shape policies that promote equity, dignity, and patient-directed care at the end of life — and to ensure that people’s wishes are not just heard, but honored.
Mail contributions directly to:
Compassion & Choices Gift Processing Center
PO Box 485
Etna, NH 03750
Compassion & Choices is a 501 C3 organization. Federal tax number: 84-1328829
