The American Medical Association (AMA) praised a move from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to remove training requirements for physicians to use buprenorphine to treat patients with opioid use disorder (OUD).
The new Practice Guidelines for the Administration of Buprenorphine for Treating Opioid Use Disorder, signed by HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, “[exempts] eligible physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, certified registered nurse anesthetists and certified nurse midwives from federal certification requirements related to training, counseling and other ancillary services that are part of the process for obtaining a waiver to treat up to 30 patients with buprenorphine,” HHS explained in a press release.
According to HHS, over 90,000 drug overdose deaths are estimated to have occurred in the U.S. from September 2019-September 2020, the highest number ever recorded over a 12-month period—and overdose death rates continued to increase during the Covid-19 pandemic. “Increases in overdose deaths emphasize the need to expand access to evidence-based treatments, including buprenorphine that can be prescribed in office-based settings,” Assistant Secretary for Health, Rachel Levine, MD, said in a statement.
“The AMA is pleased that HHS will support physicians to prescribe buprenorphine by removing daunting regulatory barriers and easing stigma facing patients with opioid use disorder,” Patrice Harris, MD, MA, chair of the AMA’s Opioid Task Force and immediate past president of the AMA, wrote. “Patients are struggling to find physicians who are authorized to prescribe buprenorphine; onerous regulations discourage physicians from being certified to prescribe it.
“With this change, office-based physicians and physician-led teams working with patients to manage their other medical conditions can also treat them for their opioid use disorder without being subjected to separate, burdensome and stigmatizing requirements,” she continued. “Physicians should become educated about managing patients with opioid use disorder to help stem the nationwide overdose epidemic and ease the persistent health disparities facing these patients.”
The AMA noted that it urged HHS to change these regulations last year—and now that HHS has eased waiver requirements, the association added that it will be supporting legislation to remove these requirements altogether moving forward.
John McKenna, Associate Editor, BreakingMED™
Cat ID: 144
Topic ID: 87,144,730,192,144,925
