Bill proposed to lift cap on number of patients a physician can treat for opioid addiction – Record Herald

By Ashley Bunton

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that emergency department (ED) visits for opioid overdoses rose 70 percent in the Midwest between July 2016 and September 2017. Now, federal legislation designed to increase funding for communities battling the opioid crisis would also lift a capped restriction on the number of patients a physician can treat.

The bill, dubbed CARA 2.0, follows the 2016 CARA legislation that was signed into law by President Obama that set forth major funding from the federal government to combat the opioid public health crisis.

CARA 2.0 would make Section 3 of CARA permanent, allowing physician assistants and nurse practitioners to prescribe buprenorphine under the direction of a qualified physician. It would also allow states to waive the limit on the number of patients a physician can treat with buprenorphine so long as they follow evidence-based guidelines. There is currently a cap of 100 patients per physician.