AHA Comments on Senate Finance Committee Opioid Legislation

The AHA today voiced support for certain provisions in and proposed amendments to the Helping to End Addiction and Lessen (HEAL) Substance Use Disorders Act, which the Senate Finance Committee will begin marking up this afternoon. As introduced by Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT), the legislation would require Medicare and Medicaid to provide beneficiaries better education, prevention, management and treatment options for pain and addiction; increase Medicare beneficiary awareness of non-opioid alternative treatments; increase treatment for substance use disorder; improve tracking of opioid prescriptions under Medicare Part D; expand and clarify Medicaid’s options for treating beneficiaries with substance use disorder; and improve data used to evaluate treatments for opioid use disorder. Finance Committee members have filed more than 50 amendments to the Chairman’s mark. The House of Representatives also has begun considering a number of opioid-related bills this afternoon, including four bills supported by the AHA.