Obama Administration Eases Restrictions On Doctors Who Treat Opioid Addiction

The drug acts on the receptor targets of heroin and morphine but does not produce the same high or risky side effects, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

In a conference call with reporters Tuesday, Burwell and Michael Botticelli, the director of national drug control policy, urged Congress to approve the $1.1 billion funding that the president requested in February. Of those treated, about 600,000-650,000 received buprenorphine.

In a 2014 report, the CDC stated that 78 people a day across the country die from prescription or heroin drug overdose.

The new buprenorphine rule announced now has been in the development since last fall. The treatments are controversial, however, in part because the drugs are themselves opioids.

Suboxone is itself an opioid. But its effects are milder and make overdoses less likely and less deadly.

As a result, the federal government has enacted strict rules on doctors who can prescribe the drugs. Gary Mendell is the founder of a New York-based anti-addiction advocacy group called Shatterproof. But federal health officials have called it an “underused” tool for addiction therapy. Botticelli noted that the House and the Senate are slated to negotiate opioid legislation Wednesday, and that a GOP-drafted compromise “does not include the additional funding needed for treatment”. The move doesn’t require Congressional approval; however, Obama’s plan to add $1.1 billion to anti-opioid programs does.

It has been unveiled that the HHS is also coming up with more than dozen new studies of opioid misuse and pain treatment.

The Department of Health and Human Services announced Wednesday that it is raising the limit on how much of an opioid addiction medication, buprenorphine, qualified health-care providers can prescribe.

Expanding access to MAT is one of the three foundational priorities of the HHS Opioid Initiative, and buprenorphine is one of the drugs frequently used for MAT. Of the roughly 1 million Americans receiving that form of treatment in 2014, about 60 to 65 percent got buprenorphine, and most of the rest received methadone. Under the new rule, hospitals would continue surveying patients on how well their pain was controlled during their stay, but the answers wouldn’t affect Medicare payment levels. The number of people health professionals can help shrinks even further when one considers prescribers are limited to treating just 30 patients in the first year, and up to 100 in year two and beyond, with adequate certification.

To prevent that in the future, HHS is proposing a rule to divide a patient’s pain assessment from the Medicare reimbursement process.

In the meantime, the White House on Tuesday announced that they would now allow qualified physicians to almost triple the number of patients they could treat with buprenorphine – from 100 to 275.

“In the absence of congressional action, we’re taking every step forward that we can”, Burwell said about the increased patient cap and other steps HHS is taking to address the heroin crisis.