Panels Approve Legislation to Lift Bupe Patient Limit May 9, 2005
News Summary
Legislation to lift the 30-patient limit placed on medical groups that want to prescribe medications to treat addiction -- notably the anti-opiate drug buprenorphine -- recently was approved by the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health.The Legal Action Center reported that the bill, H.R. 869, was sent to the full Energy and Commerce Committee for review by voice vote. The bill also has been referred to the House Judiciary Committee for review.
Identical legislation in the Senate (S. 45) was referred to the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee where it was discharged by unanimous consent, and to the Judiciary Committee, where the legislation awaits review.
Both bills are intended to fix a provision of the Drug Abuse and Treatment Act (DATA), passed by Congress in 2000. One section of DATA allows physicians to dispense and prescribe Schedule III drugs, including buprenorphine, for the treatment of opiate addiction. However, as written, the law precludes physician groups from treating more than 30 patients.
The proposed legislation would remove this 30-patient aggregate limit on medical groups while maintaining the 30-patient limit for individual physicians.
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