Any physician or other licensed provider can prescribe any patient any medication on the market – including drugs that come with serious risks or potential side effects. Well, almost any.
The catch? If a physician wants to write a prescription for a medicine to help address opioid use disorder – commonly called opioid addiction. These providers must go through extra hoops to be able to do this.
This drug is buprenorphine. It is an opioid. However, it can aid in blocking the action of other opioid drugs – oxycodone to heroin. This can help a patient overcome the cravings to use those other substances. Buprenorphine does not cause a powerful ‘high’ of its own though.
The federal government recently removed one of the bigger hurdles to prescribing buprenorphine. Prescribers no longer have to go through hours of carefully scripted special training before they can apply for permission to offer it to patients. And, those who prescribe it to less than 30 patients no longer have to certify that they can connect patients to additional counseling. It’s a big policy change!
Unfortunately, it’s not the only thing that needs to happen in order to increase the chances that more Americans with opioid use disorder are able to access this treatment.