ASAM Responds to U.S. Senate HELP Committee's Request for Solutions to Health Care Workforce Shortages

On March 17th, ASAM sent a letter to the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Environment, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), in response to its request for information on solutions to the nation's healthcare workforce shortages, and highlighted three areas where the Senate HELP committee could enact solutions to the nation's addiction workforce shortage. First, ASAM suggested reauthorizing and preserving the focus of the Substance Use Disorder (SUD) Treatment and Recovery (STAR) Loan Repayment Program, which would expand the number of SUD treatment professionals. Second, ASAM emphasized the Senate HELP committee pass the Modernizing Opioid Treatment Access Act (M-OTAA), which is a measured, critical workforce down payment that would expand access to methadone treatment for OUD in medical settings and areas where it is not available now. Finally, ASAM urged the Senate HELP Committee to consider passing federal legislation that would establish a new, audio-video, telehealth evaluation exception to the Ryan Haight Act's in-person exam requirement, solely for the purposes of prescribing controlled medications approved, and used, for the treatment of addiction. 

Read the letter here.