Government Healthcare Policy, Business and Technology

Did new addiction treatment bill miss an opportunity to strengthen state drug-monitoring programs?

Modern Healthcare: Patient advocates say a bill passed by Congress last week that ostensibly decriminalizes drug addiction will no doubt open doors for those seeking treatment. But others say the legislation is a lost opportunity to strengthen the country's ability to track opioid prescriptions.An older version of the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act boosted states grants to run programs that flag over-users of prescription drugs only if the states required physicians to check the databases before they wrote a prescription. Physicians, however, lobbied against the requirement, stating it was burdensome and that the databases, known as prescription drug monitoring programs, often failed to provide the most updated and comprehensive information.

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