USA. Biden Is Opposing a Promising Step Toward Buprenorphine Deregulation
USA. Biden Is Opposing a Promising Step Toward Buprenorphine Deregulation
In the final week of former President Trump’s term, the US Department of Health and Human services (HHS) announced a practice guideline that would exempt physicians from the “X-waiver” requirement for prescribing buprenorphine to treat opioid use disorder (OUD). While imperfect—it applied only to physicians and had a treatment cap of 30 patients—this would have been a step in the right direction. Around 2 million Americans need treatment for OUD, yet few actually receive it. Increasing the number of eligible buprenorphine prescribers would be welcome progress. Yet, on January 25, it was revealed that President Biden’s administration is planning to obstruct this move toward expanded access.This is a mistake. (Filter, USA, 27.01.2021)
https://filtermag.org/biden-administration-buprenorphine-deregulation/