Congressional leaders have finalized a deal on a wide-ranging bill to help reduce addictions and deaths from opioids.
The bill, which spans 660 pages, was announced late Tuesday evening and marks a significant bipartisan victory ahead of the midterm elections. The death toll from opioids reached 40,000 people in 2017, and the legislation changes regulations, gives more tools to medical research entities and law enforcement, and uses funding from various spending bills advanced earlier this year.
Congressional leaders did not release a timeline for a vote, but said they expected the deal to pass “swiftly” and head to President Trump’s desk. The bill, called the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act, must first pass the House in a vote expected this week, and then the Senate will follow.
“Once signed into law, this legislation sends help to our communities fighting on the front lines of the crisis and to the millions of families affected by opioid use disorders,” the committee leaders said in a joint statement. “While there is more work to be done, this bipartisan legislation takes an important step forward and will save lives.”
The final package pulled together work from eight committees in the House and five in the Senate.
Advocates working on mental health and substance abuse have asked for additional funding, and believe that certain provisions will allow for increased access to treatment. The Senate had appropriated $8.5 billion this year toward battling the opioid crisis.
One provision negotiated by leaders allows hospitals to receive Medicaid payments when they take in more patients who have a mental illness or addiction. Previously, hospitals were allowed to take in no more than 16, leading to long wait lines for care. The bill also allows patients to stay as long as 30 days, rather than the 15-day limit currently in place. The provision had been included in the House bill but not in the Senate version, and will last for four years.
Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, who was among the senators who pushed for the change, called it “one of the most important things we can do to expand access to substance use disorder treatment right now for those who truly need it.”
The opioid legislation also allows more healthcare providers to give medication to patients that helps them stave off the painful symptoms of withdrawal. It seeks to reduce the prevalence of illicit fentanyl, a highly potent drug, by having the postal service scan packages coming from overseas. It also requires prescription painkillers to be sold in blister packs so that the amount patients receive is limited and so that patients can tell how many they have had.
