Thirteen Senators Stand Up for Increased Access to Addiction Treatment

On August 7, 2015, thirteen US Senators wrote a letter to the Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia M. Burwell requesting that she use her authority to lift the cap on the number of patients with an opioid use disorder a physician can treat at one time.

The Drug Addiction Treatment Act of 2000 allows opioid addiction to be treated in a primary care setting with the use of FDA-approved medications, such as buprenorphine. However, the law arbitrarily capped the number of patients a doctor with a special waiver could treat at any one time to 30 through the first year and, if requested and certified, permits expansion to 100 patients.

Senators Orrin G. Hatch (R-UT), Edward J. Markey (D-MA), Kelly A. Ayotte (R-NH), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Susan M. Collins (R-ME), Richard J. Durbin (D-IL), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI), Angus S. King, Jr. (I-ME), Mark Kirk (R-IL), Rand Paul (R-KY), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) signed the letter in a bipartisan effort to increase access to treatment for those with an opioid use disorder.

As noted in the letter, this patient cap has limited access to effective treatment and created a huge disparity between those who can prescribe opioids and those who can prescribe treatments for opioid addiction. As a result, only 10 percent of the 23 million Americans with addiction receive any care in a given year. The letter conveys the urgency to increase access to a broad range of treatments and services for opioid addiction, including treatment with buprenorphine.

ASAM sent a letter lauding the Senators for asking the Obama Administration to act now to increase treatment access and reduce the burden of opioid addiction in the U.S.