Hoping to give more people addicted to opioids access to a drug that can help in recovery, a bipartisan group of 22 senators wants the government to expand physicians' ability to prescribe buprenorphine even further than currently proposed.
In a June 1 letter sent to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Silvia Mathews Burwell, the senators said that a proposed rule change from the agency released in March doesn't go far enough to expand patient access to the drug, which is viewed by many medical professionals as the best chance to get people addicted to prescription painkillers off those drugs.
Under current regulations, doctors who are certified to prescribe buprenorphine, commonly sold in the U.S. as Suboxone, can treat only 30 patients at a time in their first year. They can then receive authorization to treat as many as 100 patients in subsequent years--a restriction that HHS proposed be increased to allow certified doctors to treat as many as 200 patients at a time in their third year of prescribing.
In their letter, the senators said merely doubling the number of patients doctors can treat isn't enough in light of the country's opioid epidemic in which overdose deaths have skyrocketed. The senators want to see HHS raise the number of patients a doctor can treat with buprenorphine to 500, making it available to far more people, according to the letter.
The lawmakers said physicians have no restrictions on writing prescriptions for opioid painkillers, which have contributed to the epidemic. "The current 100 patient cap is one of several factors that have created a huge disparity between those who can prescribe opioids for treatment of pain and those who can prescribe treatments for opioid use disorder," the senators wrote. "Only 10 percent of the 23 million Americans with addictions and substance use disorders receive any care in a given year." Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, D-Vermont, was among the senators who signed the letter.
With people on waiting lists, many doctors agree that expanded access to the addiction treatment medication is vital. Critics, however, are skeptical due to the potential for redirection and misuse of the drug, as FiercePracticeManagement has reported.
To learn more:
- read the letter (pdf.)