Anti-Opioid Abuse Package Passes the Senate
WASHINGTON – The United States Senate today
passed a broad, anti-opioid abuse package that includes 12 bipartisan
legislative efforts led and co-sponsored by Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa,
chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and Senate Caucus on International
Narcotics Control.
The Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention recently reported
that two-thirds of drug overdose deaths between 2015 and 2016 were
opioid-involved overdoses. The Iowa Department of Public Health estimated
that more than 200 Iowans died from opioid misuse in 2017.
“Families and communities in Iowa and throughout the country have seen and felt the devastation of rampant opioid addiction,” Grassley said. “There is no quick fix, but the passage of this bipartisan anti-opioid abuse package is a big step in the right direction that will help millions of Americans impacted by this terrible epidemic.”
A list of
bipartisan legislative efforts in the fight against opioid abuse both led and
co-sponsored by Grassley is available below.
·
S.2923 Building Capacity for
Family-Focused Residential Treatment Act
o S.2923 would help child welfare
agencies, treatment centers or non-profit organizations establish
evidence-based, family-focused residential treatment programs in order to
prevent kids from being placed in foster care while parents are in
rehabilitation centers due to opioid abuse.
o More information available here.
·
S.2908 Electronic Prior Authorization
in Medicare Part D
o S.2908 would require that Part D
e-prescribing systems allow for processing of formulary prior authorizations
using a standard format for secure electronic transmissions of prior
authorization requests from a prescribing health care professional for a
covered Part D drug and a response from the plan to the prescribing
professional.
o More information available here.
·
S.2891 Fighting the Opioid Epidemic
with Sunshine Act
o S.2891 will require drug
companies and medical device makers to publicly disclose the same payments made
to nurse practitioners and physician assistants for promotional talks, consulting
and other interactions.
o More information available here.
·
S.2645 Access to Increased Drug
Disposal Act of 2018
o S.2645 will encourage increased
participation of authorized collectors in drug take back programs by awarding
grants to states. It will focus particular attention on states within the
lowest quartile of participation in take back programs.
o More information available here.
·
S.2535 Opioid Quota Reform Act
o S.2535 will empower the Drug
Enforcement Administration (DEA) to consider additional factors when setting
annual quotas for opioid drug production in the United States. Currently, DEA
can only consider past sales and estimated demand. This bill allows the agency
to take into account diversion, abuse, overdose deaths and public health
impacts when setting quotas.
o More information available here.
·
S.2789 Substance Abuse Prevention Act
o S.2789 will reauthorize the
Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), keeping the Drug-Free
Communities (DFC) and High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) programs
within that agency. It will also boost public awareness of opioid and heroin addiction
as authorized under the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA);
provide resources for families to stay together when one is battling substance
abuse; and require the Attorney General and the Dept. of Health and Human
Services to complete a plan for educating and training health care providers in
best practices for prescribing controlled substances.
o More information available here.
·
S.207 Synthetic Abuse and Labeling of
Toxic Substances (SALTS) Act of 2017
o S.207 will close a legal loophole
that inhibits the prosecution of opioid analogue traffickers by clarifying when
a controlled substance analogue is or is not intended for human consumption.
o More information available here.
·
S.2837 Preventing Drug Diversion Act of
2018
o S.2837 will amend the Controlled
Substances Act to define “suspicious order” and will require registrants
to design a system to identify suspicious orders, and notify DEA of those
orders.
o More information available here.
o See also: Grassley:
DEA Must Explain Objections to Bill it Helped Write in Fight against Opioid
Abuse
·
S.2838 Using Data to Prevent Opioid
Diversion Act of 2018
o S.2838 will require DEA to use
anonymized data to track and prevent the diversion of prescription opioids into
illegal sales. The data will be available to registrants, and will include the
total number of distributors serving a single pharmacy or practitioner and the
total number of opioid pills distributed to a single pharmacy or practitioner.
o More information available here.
·
S.2901 Expanding Telehealth Response to
Ensure Addiction Treatment (e-TREAT) Act
o S.2901 will increase access to
substance use disorder treatment through telehealth technology in Medicare.
o More information available here.
·
S.2912 Opioid Addiction Treatment
Programs Enhancement Act
o S.2912 will require HHS to report
on the prevalence of substance use disorders in Medicaid. This annual
report will include the number of people in Medicaid with a substance use
disorder and the number of services provided to these individuals. The
reporting will be uniform across managed care, fee for service, and state
waivers. The data will be made available to researchers in
anonymized manner. Understanding the scope of substance use disorder as
well as understanding what therapies work will provide invaluable information
to policy makers as they fight the opioid epidemic. Currently, there is no comprehensive
database for this information in Medicaid.
·
S.2921 Securing Flexibility to Treat
Substance Use Disorders Act
o S.2921 will improve access to
care for people with substance use disorders that require inpatient services.
In 2016,
Grassley led the Comprehensive
Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA), a sweeping addiction recovery
bill aimed at addressing the nation’s growing heroin and opioid addiction
epidemic, through the Senate. The bill, which later became law, included a
number of Grassley provisions to assist in the fight against methamphetamine.
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