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An average of 21 Utahns die as a result of prescription pain medications each month, and the number of pill-related deaths in the past decade has increased by 400 percent.
For this reason, the National Alliance of Advocates for Buprenorphine Treatment (NAABT) would like to thank Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch for his efforts to urge a lift on the cap of opioid-addicted patients a physician can treat at one time.
This issue is especially timely because last week in Congress, the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health had a hearing to review a bill aimed at lifting the patient cap on buprenorphine treatment. Current law arbitrarily caps physicians to prescribe buprenorphine to 30 patients at first, and then after one year, if requested and certified, they can prescribe to up to 100 patients. In Utah specifically, fewer than 360 physicians are certified to prescribe buprenorphine treatment to their patients, with less than half of them actively administering treatment.
Lifting the patient cap can help increase appropriate access to treatment options like buprenorphine and will be a major step forward to ensure patients in Utah and nationally have access to solutions, and more lives can be saved.
Timothy Lepak
President, National Alliance of Advocates for Buprenorphine Treatment Farmington, Conn.