On February 8th, 2023, the State Medical Board of Ohio adopted new rules regarding weight loss medications. These new rules will significantly increase access to these critical medications for many Ohioans. As the old rules have been in place for a long time, it may take a little while for pharmacists to become accustomed to these new rules. It may be necessary for a patient to print out the new regulations and present them to the pharmacist if they are still wanting to follow the old rules.
A copy of the new regulations can be downloaded at the link below, if the need arises in such a situation.
Most significantly, a patient can now be treated for more than 3 months with Adipex (phentermine) providing that they lose at least 5% of their total body weight (e.g. 10 lbs in a patient that starts out at 200 lbs) by the end of 90 days. Also, some visits can be done via telemedicine whereas previously every visit was supposed to be live.
These new rules will greatly increase access to care for overweight patients in Ohio!
