Opioid Use Disorder Treatment Expansion and Modernization Act
Latest action. Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
Opioid Use Disorder Treatment Expansion and Modernization Act
(Sec. 3) This bill amends the Controlled Substances Act to revise the requirements for a practitioner to administer, dispense, or prescribe narcotic drugs for maintenance or detoxification treatment in an office-based opioid treatment program.
Currently, a practitioner must notify the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and certify that he or she is a qualifying physician (i.e., a state-licensed physician with certain expertise), has the capacity to refer patients for appropriate counseling and ancillary services, and will comply with a patient limit. The patient limit is how many patients the practitioner can treat under the office-based treatment program at one time.
This legislation expands qualifying practitioners to include nurse practitioners and physician assistants who are licensed in a state, have expertise (such as relevant training or expertise), and prescribe medications for opioid use disorder in collaboration with or under the supervision of a qualifying physician if state law requires physician oversight of prescribing authority.
Additionally, it requires a qualifying practitioner to also certify that he or she will comply with reporting requirements and has the capacity to provide directly or by referral, or in another manner prescribed by HHS, all drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat opioid use disorder.
HHS may issue regulations to change the maximum patient limit for a qualifying practitioner. If HHS increases the limit, then a qualifying practitioner must additionally certify that he or she will obtain written consent from each patient regarding available treatment options.
HHS must update the treatment improvement protocol containing best practice guidelines for the treatment of opioid-dependent patients in office-based settings.
HHS may recommend revoking or suspending the registration of a practitioner who fails to comply with the requirements of this Act.
(Sec. 4) The bill expresses the sense of Congress that HHS should consider raising from 100 to 250 the maximum patient limit for a qualifying physician.
The summary continues for 3 more paragraphs. Read it in full on Congress.gov
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Passed House amended" stage on May 11, 2016. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
4 steps remain before this bill could become law.
The record's latest action, on May 12, 2016: Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
- Clearing the committees it was referred to, and being scheduled for a floor vote
- Passage by the House
- Passage by the Senate
- The President's signature. If the President vetoes it, two-thirds of both chambers must vote to override.
How likely is it to become law?
Civibrief does not forecast outcomes and this page has no opinion about this one. What the record supports is a base rate, which is a fact about the whole pile, not a prediction about this measure.
In the 114th Congress (2015-16), 329 of the 10,233 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 3.2 percent. That count covers every measure at every stage, including the many that never left committee.
This one is not there yet: 4 steps are still outstanding, listed above.
Has anyone actually voted on it?
No. No roll call in this Congress cites this measure. That is the ordinary outcome: most measures never reach a recorded floor vote, and a committee ends most of them simply by not acting.
A vote is not the only thing that happens to a measure. Hearings, markups, and referrals are all recorded actions, and none of them is a vote of the full chamber.
Who is behind it?
Larry Bucshon (R-IN) introduced it on April 18, 2016, and 2 members have since signed on as cosponsors.
They come from both major parties: 1 Democrat, 1 Republican.
Cosponsoring is a formal signature on the text. It is not a commitment to vote for the measure, it does not bind anyone's party, and a long list of cosponsors is a measure of attention rather than of prospects.
How long has it been in play?
It was introduced on April 18, 2016, 3797 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 3773 days ago, on May 12, 2016.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 114th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2017 dies when the term ends, and has to be introduced again from the start in the next Congress.
Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.
Vote history
- HouseIn committee, no floor vote yet
- SenateAwaits House passage
- PresidentAwaits both chambers