Understanding New Jersey’s Schedule II Medication Rules: What You Need to Know

If you’ve been prescribed a Schedule II medication (such as certain ADHD medications), you may have noticed changes to how appointments are scheduled—especially around in-person visits.

We know this has been confusing. There’s been shifting guidance, and we want to clearly explain what’s changed, what it means for you, and how we’ve been handling it on our end.

What is a Schedule II Medication?

Schedule II medications are a category of controlled substances that are closely regulated because they have a higher potential for misuse. At the same time, they’re commonly prescribed and highly effective for certain conditions—like ADHD or severe pain—which is why they’re widely used in treatment.

Because of that balance (effective but more tightly controlled), there are stricter rules around how these medications are prescribed and monitored.

What Happened?

During COVID-19, there were temporary rules that allowed providers to prescribe Schedule II medications through telehealth without requiring an in-person visit. In New Jersey, those rules officially ended with Executive Order 415, which went into effect on February 16, 2026.

Once that happened, providers could no longer rely on those emergency flexibilities, meaning that now all new clients being prescribed Schedule II medications need to be seen in person for their first visit and again every 3 months thereafter. If the client is not seen in person within that time frame, the medication can't be refilled.

Several clients have asked us if this is unique to TheraCorp. It is not.

Under New Jersey law, prescribing Schedule II medications requires:

• "an initial in-person evaluation" and

• "a subsequent in-person visit... every three months for the duration of time that the patient is being prescribed the Schedule II controlled dangerous substance"

Here's a direct link to the law: https://pub.njleg.gov/bills/2016/PL17/117_.HTM

What this means in practice:

• You must be seen in person to be prescribed a Schedule II controlled substance in New Jersey

• You must also see your prescriber in person at least once every 3 months in order to continue receiving your Schedule II controlled substances

What is Unique To TheraCorp?

1. What we did ahead of time: In anticipation and preparation for this change, starting in October 2025, our team began reaching out to clients to start transitioning to in-person visits early. The goal was to avoid last-minute issues—like finding out too late that you couldn’t make it to an office, or we didn’t have availability to see you in time to continue your medication. By starting early, we were able to spread out scheduling and avoid a bottleneck right before the deadline.

   
   

2. Monthly visits to avoid issues: To help avoid any gaps in care, we recommend scheduling monthly visits. This keeps you on a consistent schedule, allows us to stay ahead of your prescription needs, and helps prevent last-minute issues. If visits are spaced too far apart, it can create situations where your required in-person appointment is due, but your prescriber doesn’t have availability right away, meaning your refill could be delayed. Monthly visits help avoid that entirely.

What's New About This?

In early March, we received additional clarification from the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs. This allowed established patients to continue receiving Schedule II prescriptions via telehealth temporarily through May 16, 2026. This extension was meant to give patients extra time to complete their required in-person visits without disrupting care.

There’s one additional clarification from the Consumer Affairs guidance that’s important to understand. The prescriber who sees you in person must be the one who sends your Schedule II prescription.

What this means in practice is that if you’ve been seeing our well-known and loved psychiatric prescriber, Diana Dou, who works entirely virtually, and you’d like to continue working with her, you still can—but your medication refills and any changes would need to be handled by the prescriber who sees you in person. To be totally honest, it would not make sense to continue care with Diana in this case, only because she wouldn't be the one making medication decisions.

For that reason, we generally recommend transitioning your care to one of our in-person prescribers so everything is streamlined and managed in one place.

That said, we understand that relationships matter—if you’ve built a strong connection with Diana and want to continue checking in with her, that option is still available. Just keep in mind that any medication-related changes would need to be coordinated through your in-person provider.

We’re confident that you’ll be in great hands with any of our prescribers—they’re all highly experienced, thoughtful, and take a very personalized approach to care.

We know this is different from what some clients were initially told. That’s because this clarification came after earlier guidance, and we’re adjusting our processes accordingly to stay compliant.

Here's a screenshot of the NJ Division of Consumer Affairs correspondence that we received in March.

We understand that telehealth has been more convenient for many of our clients. Unfortunately, we don’t have flexibility around these rules, and our priority is making sure your care continues without interruption while staying compliant.

If you have questions about your appointments or need help scheduling, our team is here to walk you through it. We know this hasn’t been the simplest transition, and we appreciate your flexibility as we navigate these updates.