On August 5, ASAM sent a letter to senior Biden Administration officials reiterating its strong support for simultaneous passage of the bipartisan, bicameral Medication Access and Training Expansion (MATE) Act of 2021 (S. 2235/H.R. 2067) and the Mainstreaming Addiction Treatment (MAT) Act of 2021 (S. 445/H.R. 1384). The MATE Act would require most controlled medication prescribers registered with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to have a baseline knowledge of how to identify, treat, and manage patients with substance use disorder (SUD). The MAT Act would eliminate what would then be a clearly redundant requirement that practitioners apply for a separate DEA waiver to prescribe buprenorphine for opioid use disorder (OUD), along with the x-waiver’s patient limits and extra regulatory burdens on buprenorphine for OUD.

ASAM’s letter emphasized that America faces a significant and worsening workforce shortage, both in the addiction space and in healthcare more broadly. By simultaneously passing the MATE and MAT Acts, Congress could dramatically expand the number of clinicians who are trained to treat addiction. It is particularly important that all prescribers of DEA-controlled medications receive training on addiction, as these healthcare professionals often interact with, and have opportunities to provide effective interventions for, individuals with SUD – opportunities to help that are often missed. 

Read the letter here.

Read the MATE Act here.

Read the MAT Act here.