Don’t let Congress block treatment access

Medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD), including methadone and buprenorphine, are the most effective treatments for people struggling with addiction to opioids like fentanyl. They promote recovery and save lives by reducing opioid cravings and withdrawal symptoms, while cutting overdose risk in half.

Access to MOUD has been limited by strict regulations, cost, health insurance barriers, and not having a pharmacy or doctor who can prescribe it to you. Over the last few years, we helped loosen restrictions around MOUD with changes that allowed patients to take methadone doses home and expanded access to buprenorphine through telehealth. This has helped people initiate and stay engaged in treatment and lead more stable lives while contributing to the recent decline in overdose deaths.

Yet Congress is considering H.R. 5629, which would reinstate these unnecessary barriers to MOUD, along with H.R. 5630, which would require states to collect data for surveillance of MOUD patients. Both bills would have devastating impacts restricting access to MOUD, putting recovery and lives at risk.

This Thursday, March 26, the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health will hold a hearing on this legislation, and we need your help to stop it from moving forward. Tell your House Representative to oppose these harmful bills.

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Subject

Dear Representative,

Message Body

The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health will hold a hearing this week on two bills I have serious concerns about, because they would drastically reduce access to medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) like methadone and buprenorphine, the gold standard treatments for opioid addiction. I urge you to do everything you can to ensure the House does not move these bills forward so that people who are in recovery can continue to access these lifesaving treatments and people struggling with addiction can get the care they need.

The first bill, H.R. 5629, would nullify parts of SAMHSA’s 2024 42 CFR Part 8 Final Rule, which took historic steps to loosen restrictions around medications for opioid use disorder and opioid treatment programs (OTPs). The final rule allowed patients to receive take-home doses of methadone, telehealth flexibilities for initiation of buprenorphine, expanded dispensing of methadone to include nurse practitioners and physicians assistants, and incorporated harm reduction principles into MOUD treatment, among others. Nullifying these parts of the final rule would have devastating impacts on people trying to access medications for opioid use disorder across the country by reinstating barriers to gold-standard treatment for opioid use disorder. These barriers were removed by SAMHSA and the DEA in order to increase treatment initiation and retention - reinstating these restrictions risks treatment disruption and disengagement, heightening the risk of overdose and undermining patient and public health outcomes.

The second bill, H.R. 5630, would impose new requirements on state block grant recipients to collect and report data on what protocols are in place within the state’s system of care for diversion or misuse of medications for opioid use disorder, instances of misuse of drugs for medication assisted treatment, and state data on drug screening protocols including specific protocols for drug screening patients who receive medication assisted treatment. While diversion of MOUD does sometimes occur, it is frequently overstated, and evidence suggests that increasing legal MOUD access actually decreases the illicit market for these medications. Similarly, since these COVID-19 era flexibilities were made permanent, state level data shows that diversion did not increase, despite a nearly 200% increase in the number of methadone take-home doses. When diversion occurs, it is often used by individuals for self-treatment of withdrawal symptoms rather than for recreational use. Increasing diversion surveillance of people who are engaging with evidence-based treatment may disincentivize people from pursuing future care. This added burden on states may also divert scarce resources away from treatment into surveillance mechanisms, so that states can be in compliance for future block grant dollars.

These barriers would severely impact the people who need these treatments the most - those in rural and frontier communities who may not be able to access a provider, people who are stable on MOUD but do not rely on the OTP structure for support, and adults in recovery who have responsibilities outside of reporting to an OTP daily, such as education or employment.

Please don’t allow these bills to move forward. Methadone and buprenorphine are the most effective treatments for people struggling with addiction to opioids like fentanyl. These medications promote recovery and save lives by reducing opioid cravings and withdrawal symptoms, while cutting overdose risk in half.  Abruptly cutting off treatment will put people’s recovery and lives at risk and could drive them back into the illicit market with increased risk of overdose.

Americans like me agree that treatment like MOUD is necessary to help people struggling with addiction, improve public health, and strengthen communities. At a time when Americans are already suffering due to massive cuts to care and skyrocketing healthcare costs, Congress should be preserving treatment and health services, not cutting even more.

Sincerely,

[First Name] [Last Name]
[Your Address]

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