At this week’s National Rx Drug Abuse & Heroin Summit in Atlanta, President Obama announced additional public and private sector actions to help address the devastating prescription opioid and heroin epidemic. The President announced that The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a new proposed rule to increase the current patient limit for qualified physicians who prescribe buprenorphine to treat opioid addiction. The proposed rule will increase the patient limit from 100 to 200 patients for physicians who have been trained and waivered for over a year to prescribe buprenorphine.

The proposed rule recommends adherence to nationally recognized evidence-based guidelines.

Other actions taken by the public and private sector include: a Presidential Memorandum creating an interagency task force to ensure compliance with the best practices for mental health and addiction parity implementation; a rule from HHS requiring Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) plans to offer mental health and addiction treatment at parity; $11 million in funding from SAMHSA for states to purchase, distribute and train individuals on naloxone; and more than 60 medical schools will require their students to take prescriber education in line with the newly released CDC Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain starting this fall.

The full list of actions can be read in the White House press release. The President’s speech can be viewed here.

Several representatives from CADCA attended the Rx Summit this week including Chairman and CEO Gen. Arthur T. Dean, Public Policy Consultant Sue Thau, Vice President Mary Elizabeth Elliott, Director of Development Raiko Mendoza, Membership Manager Amy Pica and board members Mary Bono and Fran Flener.

SEE ALSO:

CADCA’s new online course: “Medicine Safety: Drug Disposal and Storage”