House and Senate Prepare to Pass Bipartisan Bill to Fight Opioid Crisis

In late September 2018, the US House and Senate agreed on a compromise bill to address multiple aspects of the opioid crisis. Among the key provisions in the bill are ones to:

• Enhance access to non-opioid pain treatment options provided by Medicaid.
• Improve data sharing for Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs between states.
• Mandate Medicare-funded drug plan sponsors to include a drug management program for at-risk beneficiaries.
• Restrict entrance of illegal drugs into the United States.
• Increase the number of medication-assisted treatment (MAT) waivers to physicians and other health care providers to allow more non-physician specialists to prescribe MAT.
• Provide manufacturers and distributors access to anonymized prescription data to reduce medication diversion.

There is not yet a complete accounting of the new funds the bill would bring to bear on the opioid crisis, but a Congressional Budget Office estimate of the earlier House version of the bill suggested the 5-year expenditure would be approximately $8 billion dollars.

Published date: Dec. 20, 2018