Telewhat!!!: Telehealth Addiction Treatment

April 13, 2026

Rob Kent, Esq., Author and President, Kent Strategic Advisors, LLC 

Tom O'Connor, Publisher

The government regulators of addiction treatment do not understand or truly embrace telehealth, and it is one of the reasons that providers are struggling to survive and adapt, and why patients have difficulty accessing treatment.

When I was the General Counsel at New York State OASAS, I did not immediately embrace telehealth. I, like too many others, felt the treatment ought to be provided in person.

However, as we moved forward, we began allowing existing providers to offer limited telehealth services and required programs to obtain approval before providing such services.

Fast forward to March 2020, when COVID started to take hold, and we did not want folks near each other, but they still needed help. We rapidly approved all providers to offer telehealth services, and I am convinced this saved many lives. 

When it came to Opioid Treatment Programs, we also knew that folks needed their methadone and their therapy. So, we rapidly expanded take-home schedules with assistance from the federal government. We also allowed telehealth therapy and adjusted reimbursement rates to keep the clinics open. 

Interestingly, we heard from patients that many were more comfortable using telehealth for counseling, which kept them engaged in treatment.

Fast forward to 2026, and telehealth is already an integral part of healthcare, and it needs to be an even bigger part of the addiction care system. 

The days of services only being provided in brick-and-mortar facilities are over! However, too many regulators have just not figured this out! As stated earlier, some folks are not comfortable going to a clinic or attending group sessions. In those instances, is it better and wiser to offer them telehealth services or no services at all?

There must be oversight in place to protect against fraud and abuse; however, such oversight already exists in the form of the current rules governing treatment facilities. You see, telehealth is not a new service; it is just a change in the way services are provided.

As I mentioned previously, without telehealth being available during COVID, we would've lost tens of thousands more to overdose. It was not just telehealth prescribing; it was the ability to provide counseling through telehealth.

We should also understand that telehealth is an asset in our current environment, where addiction treatment providers struggle to recruit and retain staff to offer in-person services.

More Information about telehealth addiction treatment services: Telehealth: SUD Recovery From Home 

If regulators do not figure out how to embrace telehealth as part of their treatment system, entrepreneurs will figure out how to work around their systems and provide services that are legal, but not connected; in fact, they already are.

That means prescribers will prescribe and therapists will provide counseling services, but not in a cohesive, comprehensive treatment program, and all of us will suffer because of this.

We must not miss this opportunity to embrace telehealth; we should! If we do not, an alternative system will develop that will call into question the need for comprehensive addiction treatment programs. The clock is already running on that question.

Alcoholism & Drug Abuse Weekly, published by WILEY

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Robert Kent, Esq, President, Kent Strategic Advisors, LLC, can be reached at https://www.kentstrategicadvisors.com/. He can also be reached at (518) 669-8596 and (571) 546-1680

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