It was reported that Senate negotiators working on the Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA) have added to the bill $45 billion in funding to combat our nation’s ongoing opioid overdose epidemic. ASAM opposes this attempt to patch a fundamentally flawed health care bill, and calls on the Senate to reject grant funding as a means to finance health care.

ASAM submitted comments on proposed revised regulations in Delaware to restrict opioid prescribing via telemedicine to only permit the prescribing of medications used to treat addiction, such as buprenorphine.

On Friday, June 16th, President Trump’s Commission on Combatting Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis held a teleconference to discuss the Opioid Commission’s work and included participants from nine national non-profit organizations as well senior members of the Trump administration.

On Monday, June 19, ASAM President Dr. Kelly Clark joined leaders from the American Psychiatric Association (APA), American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry (AAAP), and American Osteopathic Academy of Addiction Medicine (AOAAM) in a meeting with the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Dr. Tom Price, to discuss solutions to the nation’s opioid epidemic. 

ASAM sent letters of support for the Removing Barriers to Medicaid and CHIP Addiction Treatment Act and the Medicaid Coverage for Addiction Recovery Treatment Act. These bills would work to repeal Medicaid Institutions for the Mental Diseases (IMD) exclusion for mental health and substance use disorder residential treatment facilities. 

ASAM and MISAM submitted a letter of opposition to HB4404 and HB4405. These bills would create barriers to accessing treatment for addiction.

ASAM led a coalition letter to HHS Secretary Tom Price expressing concern about comments he made in West Virginia suggesting that some forms of medication for opioid use disorder are superior to others, and that some are just replacing one opioid with another. The letter emphasizes how all three medications r approved by the FDA to treat opioid use disorder and are safe, effective, and help patients enter and sustain recovery and regain control of their lives.

ASAM and the Wisconsin Society of Addiction Medicine submitted a letter to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS), Division of Medicaid Services on its proposed amendments to provisions of its Section 1115 Demonstration Waiver (BadgerCare Reform Demonstration Waiver).