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Senators Collins, King Urge HHS Secretary to Increase Access to Treatment for Opioid Addiction


Access to MAT is a Human Rights Issue

Overview

Originally Published: 08/17/2015

Post Date: 08/17/2015

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by Press Release: Alleigh Marre (Collins): Kathleen Connery Dawe/Scott Ogden (King)


Attachment Files

Letter from 13 US Senators suppoting Expansion of MAT

Summary/Abstract

Senators Collins, King and eleven other US Senators Urge HHS Secretary to Increase Access to Treatment for Opioid Addiction

Content

 

 

For Immediate Release                                      Contact:  Alleigh Marre (Collins) 202-224-2523

August 12, 2015                                             Kathleen Connery Dawe/Scott Ogden (King) 202-224-5344

 

Senators Collins, King Urge HHS Secretary to Increase Access to Treatment for Prescription Pain Addiction

 
WASHINGTON, D.C.— To address the severe opioid abuse epidemic in the United States, U.S. Senators Susan Collins and Angus King, along with a group of their colleagues, have written to the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), Sylvia Burwell, urging her to increase access to treatment for prescription pain addiction.
 
Although effective medications to treat opioid use disorders exist today, federal regulations continue to limit access to some life-saving treatments. Chief among these effective treatments is medication-assisted therapy (MAT). Alarmingly, only 10 percent of the 23 million Americans with addiction and substance use disorders receive any care in a given year.
 
In their letter, the Senators stated: “Numerous studies have shown that MAT is cost effective, reduces drug use, disease rates, overdose risk and criminal activity among opioid addicted persons…Despite the effectiveness of MAT as one of the tools available to treat opioid addiction, there is significant under-treatment with this proven therapy.”
 
Specifically, the use of MAT “is highly controlled” and current law arbitrarily “caps the number of addicted patients a physician can treat at any one time.”  To remedy this disparity, HHS has the authority under the Drug Addiction Treatment Act of 2000, to increase access to MATs for the treatment of opioid use disorders. As outlined in the Senators’ letter, raising the “prescriber caps” for “highly effective MAT medications” would enable “physicians to treat more patients…and improve and increase access to quality and comprehensive opioid treatment programs.”
 
Senators Collins and King view this action as “an important part of larger collaborative efforts between the Congress and the Administration to address substance abuse disorders.”

 

 

 

 

 

The Honorable Sylvia M. Burwell

Secretary of Health and Human Services

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

200 Independence Avenue, SW

Washington, DC 20201


Dear Secretary Burwell:

As you know, the United States is in the midst of a severe opioid abuse epidemic. In 2013 alone, approximately 1.9 million Americans met the diagnostic criteria for abuse or dependence on prescription pain relievers.' We support the Department's March announcement, which outlined a three-pronged approach to combat opioid abuse. We write today to urge you to use the full authority granted to the Department through the Drug Addiction Treatment Act of 2000 (P.L. 106-310) to increase access to medication-assisted therapy (MAT) for the treatment of opioid use disorders.

While effective medications to treat opioid use disorders exist, federal regulations continue to limit access to these treatments. These restrictions have created a huge disparity between those who can prescribe opioids and those who can prescribe treatments for opioid addiction. Only 10 percent of the 23 million Americans with addictions and substance use disorders receive any care in a given year.2

Addiction experts agree that individuals suffering from an opioid use disorder need access to a broad range of treatments and services, including MAT, which typically involves a combination of medications and therapeutic supports to help people with opioid use disorders achieve recovery. Numerous studies have shown that MAT is cost effective, reduces drug use, disease rates, overdose risk and criminal activity among opioid addicted persons. For example, treatment with buprenorphine helps to reduce the transmission of HIV and hepatitis among drug users and the occurrence of high-risk injection practices.3

Medications such as methadone and buprenorphine benefit patients by reducing the side effects of withdrawal and curbing cravings, thereby assisting patients to achieve abstinence from their substance of abuse. Buprenorphine used alone or in combination with naloxone as an abuse deterrent formulation does not elicit a euphoric reaction in an opioid dependent patient and avoids the high risk of overdose associated with heroin and other opioids that are frequently misused and abused. Comprehensive MAT programs that include measures such as drug testing, the provision of behavioral counseling and other social services, implementation of anti-diversion measures, use of Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs, and reporting of drug use and treatment outcome measures help to ensure that quality care is provided to patients, while also reducing the risk of buprenorphine diversion.

Despite the effectiveness of MAT as one of the tools available to treat opioid addiction, there is significant under-treatment with this proven therapy. According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, of the 2.5 million Americans 12 years of age or older who abused or were dependent on opioids in 2012, fewer than one million received MAT.

Use of buprenorphine is highly controlled. In order to prescribe buprenorphine therapy, physicians must take and pass an eight-hour course and meet other qualifications, and then apply for a special waiver. The Drug Addiction Treatment Act (DATA) was enacted to allow, for the first time, opioid addiction treatment in a primary care setting. This law arbitrarily capped the number of addicted patients a physician can treat at any one time to 30 through the first year and, if requested and certified, permits expansion to 100 patients thereafter. As an acknowledgement that the cap was set without a full understanding of what market use and application would be, the statute grants you as HHS Secretary direct authority to raise the cap. Lifting the cap under specific circumstances or other measures to increase access would enable physicians to treat more patients with these highly effective drugs and improve and increase access to quality and comprehensive opioid treatment programs. In addition, expanding the ability of other trained health professionals such as nurse practitioners and physician's assistants to practice as DATA providers merits consideration.

We view Administrative action to raise the current prescriber caps for providers in the appropriate practice environment for highly effective MAT medications such as buprenorphine therapy as an important part of larger collaborative efforts between the Congress and the Administration to address substance use disorders.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 







 


 

 

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