Supporting Access to Telehealth for Addiction Services: Regulatory Overview and General Practice Considerations

The purpose of this document, which was put together by the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM), is to provide guidance to addiction treatment providers and programs on the regulatory and general practice issues related to the use of telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This Clinical Guidance (“Guidance”) is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is intended to offer physicians guidance regarding best practices in caring for and treating patients...

The Addiction Technology Transfer Center (ATTC) Network, the Center for Excellence on Protected Health Information (CoE-PHI), the National Consortium of Telehealth Resource Centers, and the Center for the Application of Substance Abuse Technologies (CASAT) at the University of Nevada - Reno (UNR) partnered to develop this new top tips series.

The 8-part top tips series has been developed for substance use disorder (SUD) treatment providers and peer-support specialists faced with transitioning their services to the use of telephone and videoconferencing methods in response to COVID-19 social...

In the shadow of COVID-19, telehealth has been pushed to the forefront of service delivery. Everyone is working rapidly to establish quality telehealth systems to replace face-to-face therapeutic encounters with clients.

But for some services, like Turning Point’s Directline, which began operations over 30 years ago, and Counselling Online, the 24 hour web- based counselling service for people concerned about their AOD use, the telehealth experience is ‘business as usual’. These services have an established history of connecting clients to health care providers. Both clinicians and...