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SUPPORT Act Expands Access to Medication Assisted Treatment The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) announced this week that several sections of last year’s SUPPORT Act made changes to the Controlled Substance Act that affords practitioners with greater flexibility in providing medication assisted treatment, or MAT, to patients. Signed into law in October 2018, the Substance Use Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment for Patients and Communities (SUPPORT) Act  allows qualified physicians who are board-certified in addiction medicine or addiction psychiatry, or practitioners who provide MAT in a qualified practice setting,  start treating up to 100 patients in the first year of MAT practice with a waiver. According to SAMHSA, current practitioners with an approved waiver from the agency that authorizes them to treat a maximum of 30 patients at one time are permitted to increase that number to 100 patients if they provide SAMHSA with a notification of their intention to treat 100 patients. Rep. Tonko Expected to Introduce Bill to Deregulate Addiction Treatment Rep. Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.) is expected to introduce legislation next week that would allow physicians to prescribe the addiction-treatment drug buprenorphine without restrictions. Life sciences and medical news outlet STAT reports that about 5 percent of U.S. physicians have undergone the eight-hour training required to prescribe buprenorphine (commonly marked as Suboxone). The bill from Tonko follows a recent announcement that the U.S. Justice Department filed suit again buprenorphine’s best-known manufacturer, Indivior, the British firm that has been accused of marketing Suboxone fraudulently as being safer than generic alternatives. Health Systems Commit to Transforming Behavioral Health in 100 Communities Nationwide Twenty-eight health systems met this week to kick off a new effort to transform the country’s behavioral healthcare resources especially in underserved communities. The collective effort is part of the Medicaid Transformation Project, a national initiative announced last year that is intended to transform healthcare and related social needs for the nearly 75 million Americans who are Medicaid beneficiaries. The announcement came from AVIA, a network of health systems. Citing statistics from SAMHSA, the National Institute of Mental Health, and the Kaiser Family Foundation, Avia noted in its announcement that 44.7 million American adults—including 10 million adults covered by Medicaid—experienced a mental health illness as of 2016, a number that is likely underestimated due to stigma issues. Meanwhile, about 35 percent of adults with a serious mental illness are not receiving mental health treatment. “As jarring as the national behavioral health statistics are, they only serve as the tip of the iceberg for the long-term consequences that we risk if we don’t take wide-reaching, decisive action to address this crisis today,” Andy Slavitt, chair for the Medicaid Transformation Project and former acting administrator at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, said in a news release. “Twenty-eight healthcare organizations have stepped up to proclaim with a singular, unmistakable voice that enough is enough,” Slavitt continued. “Within the next year, I expect dozens of new positive initiatives to launch. Within five to seven years, we could spark the transformation the country needs.” Last month, Molly Joel Coye, MD, MPH, physician leader in Medicaid transformation at AVIA, addressed attendees at the 2019 NABH Annual Meeting. Please click here for her presentation. Federal Officials Highlight Addiction Treatment Concerns at National Rx Drug Abuse & Heroin Summit The nation’s federal health agencies are concerned about substance use disorder policies that promote short-term medication treatment and premature tapering that could increase the risk of overdose and death, officials told attendees at this the annual Rx Drug Abuse & Heroin Summit in Atlanta this week. Therefore, representatives from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Institute on Drug Abuse emphasized that expanding the use of medications to treat opioid use disorders—including both access to medication and retention on medication—are essential for long-term recovery. The speakers from NIH also discussed the Healing Communities grants that were awarded to academic institutions in Massachusetts, Kentucky, Ohio, and New York. These studies will test interventions across healthcare, behavioral healthcare, law enforcement, and other community settings, with an emphasis on the impact of coordinated systems of care on reducing overdoses and fatalities; decreasing the incidence of OUD; increasing the numbers who receive opioid medications and are retained in treatment; use of recovery support services; and distributions of naloxone. In addition, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is cautioning providers against over-generalizing the agency’s guideline on opioid prescribing to settings and populations for which the guideline was not intended. CDC officials noted that many physicians are terminating opioids inappropriately for cancer and other conditions, and also precipitating withdrawal and pushing patients to obtain opioids illegally. Speakers from this week’s summit also expressed concerns about the growing prevalence of stimulant use disorders, the use of cocaine with opioids (also known as speedballing), and the need for medication-based treatment research to better treat these conditions. Law enforcement officials, meanwhile, raised warnings about fentanyl-laced cocaine and fentanyl that is disguised to look like cocaine. They also expressed their concerns that illicit synthetic drug production is growing because the practice has become more profitable—as well as easier to manufacture and distribute. Recently, I was appointed to the National Quality Forum Opioid Technical Expert Panel. This panel was convened as part of last year’s SUPPORT Act to review the landscape of quality measures related to opioids and opioid use disorders, and to recommend measures for inclusion in value-based payment and reporting models under Medicare. A series of web-based meetings will take place through January 2020 and will be open to the public. If you have questions about the National Rx Drug Abuse & Heroin Summit specifically, or addiction treatment more generally, please contact me at sarah@nabh.org. —Sarah Wattenberg, NABH Director of Quality and Addiction Services Drug Enforcement Administration’s National Rx Take-Back Day is April 27 The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) will partner with federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies and businesses on Saturday, April 27 to host events to collect and safely dispose unwanted medications. Unused prescriptions thrown in the trash can be retrieved, abused, and/or sold illegally, DEA cautioned, and removing unwanted or expired medications from the medicine cabinet is an easy step Americans can take to make a difference in the nation’s opioid crisis. National Rx Take Back Day will take place from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. ET, and the DEA has provided a Collection Site Locator on its Take Back Day homepage. Mental Health Month Starts Next Week 2019 marks the 70^th anniversary of Mental Health Month, which Mental Health America and its affiliates have observed each May since 1949. This year, Mental Health America will build on its 2018 theme—#4Mind4Body—as it explores the topics of animal companionship (including both pets and support animals), spirituality, humor, work-life balance, recreation, and social connections as ways to boost mental health and general wellness. See Mental Health America’s Mental Health Month toolkit for information and resources. HRSA Accepting Applications for 2019 Graduate Psychology Education and Nurse Corps Programs The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) is accepting applications for its Graduate Psychology Education (GPE) program and its Nurse Corps Scholarship Program (NCSP) until May. HRSA’s GPE program trains doctoral health psychology students, interns, and post-doctoral residents to provide integrated, interdisciplinary, behavioral health and substance use prevention and treatment services in high-need and high-demand areas. The program also supports faculty development of health service psychology. According to HRSA, there is about $18 million in funding for about 40 awards, and it will accept applications through May 7. The NCSP awards funds to students enrolled in a diploma, associate, baccalaureate, or graduate degree nursing program accept applications for this program if those students commit to serving in high-need, underserved communities. Scholarship support covers tuition, required fees, other reasonable educational costs, and a monthly living stipend. HRSA will accept applications through May 21. 2019 NABH Annual Meeting Recorded Presentations Now Available! Recorded presentations, photos, and an updated attendance list from the 2019 NABH Annual Meeting in Washington are now available on NABH’s Annual Meeting homepage. The recorded presentations—along with copies of the speakers’ slide decks—are also available on NABH’s Annual Meeting Speakers & Presentations page. We look forward to seeing you at the 2020 NABH Annual Meeting next March!   For questions or comments about CEO Update, please contact Jessica Zigmond.