Obama Administration Offers Help for Addiction Patients

Obama Administration Offers Help for Addiction Patients

Jason Cherkis of The Huffington Post reports that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released a proposed rule on Tuesday to double the number of patients a doctor can treat with an opioid addiction medication that public health officials consider essential. The change could help reduce waiting lists in places hit hard by the opioid epidemic.

“This is an important step and I think it’s a very public signal of how we think about it and what we believe,” said HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell in an interview with The Huffington Post. She expects the rule to go into effect before President Obama leaves office (Huff Post).

In 2002, the Food and Drug Administration approved the use of buprenorphine in 2002 to treat opioid addiction, and public health officials saw it as a huge victory. Medication-assisted treatment or MAT is considered the standard for addiction therapy across the world. With the FDA’s clearance of buprenorphine, opioid addiction in the U.S. could be treated like any other chronic disease (Huff Post).

However, under the current regulations, doctors can treat only 30 patients at a time in the first year they’re prescribed to the medication. If the proposed rule goes into effect, doctors could treat as many as 200 patients at a time in their third year.

The Obama administration has been making efforts to address the current epidemic of opioid addiction in the U.S. Earlier this year, HHS gave $94 million to 271 health centers across the country to increase access to medication-assistant treatment of addiction (Huff Post). The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration will be giving another $11 million to 11 states to provide MAT as well.

The regulations placed on buprenorphine were originally set out of fear that it may find its way onto the black market, since it can produce a high with large doses. But studies have shown that those buying the drug illegally are doing so to treat their own addiction (Huff Post).

Surprisingly, the Drug Enforcement Administration has not been resistant to the proposed expanded access of buprenorphine.

“In general, the history has not always been a smooth and easy one between HHS and DEA, but you couldn’t have asked for better partners than them this time,” said Richard Frank, HHS’s assistant secretary for planning and evaluation (Huff Post).

Alan and Sheryl Walters, from Northern Kentuck, recount the turmoil caused by being turned away by a doctor when in need of treatment for addiction. Their son died of a drug overdose after leaving a 45-day rehabilitation program in February 2013.

“It’s a long time needed,” said Alan Walters of the proposed higher patient limit. “I think for the families that are struggling with it now, I think the will benefit from it” (Huff Post).

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