Brown: US has a heroin problem

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) demanded that Congress make it easier for heroin addicts to get treatment. 

“We’ve got a problem when it’s easier for Americans to get heroin than it is for them to get help to break their addiction,” Brown said on Monday. “We must give patients greater access to drug addiction treatment in the outpatient setting.”

{mosads}Brown is a sponsor of the Recovery Enhancement for Addiction Treatment (TREAT) Act, which would allow healthcare providers to treat larger numbers of patients struggling with addiction.

“The TREAT Act would accomplish this by enabling more health care providers to treat larger numbers of patients struggling with addiction to opioids such as oxycodone and heroin,” Brown said. “This will help save lives while simultaneously saving our hospital system money and reducing drug-related crimes.”

Brown said the legislation is needed because currently federal law limits the number of addicts a physician can treat for opioid abuse, creating long waiting lists for treatment. Doctors have to apply for a special waiver to prescribe opioid addiction medicines and are not allowed to treat more than 30 patients during their first year with the waiver, and are restricted to treating only 100 patients a year. The TREAT Act would lift those caps to 100 patients in the first year and no limits after that.

Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) introduced the TREAT Act, S. 2645. The bill would also allow qualified nurse practitioners and physician assistants to treat addicted patients.