As the brand new 118th Congress session begins, Mental Health America desires to take a second to understand the key legislative victories within the final congressional session and spotlight one new coverage particularly, the X-waiver repeal.
Mental Health America associates and advocates participated in conferences, calls, and days of motion, sharing their tales of lived expertise with Congress and had been capable of safe many wins, together with:
- New Medicare protection of licensed peer specialists in built-in behavioral settings and as a part of cellular disaster interventions.
- Authority and funding for peer help companies for veterans, birthing people, and people liable to justice involvement.
- A $150 million enhance within the Mental Health Block Grant, bringing its complete to over $1 billion for the primary time in its historical past.
- A set-aside for disaster companies within the Mental Health Block Grant in addition to over half a billion {dollars} for the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline and a new disaster coordinating heart on the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
- Over $1 billion in funding for school-based psychological well being professionals and a pipeline to extend this workforce’s range.
- Millions in {dollars} funding youth psychological well being consciousness and coaching for varsity personnel to detect and reply to psychological well being points and join school-aged youth to companies.
- New Medicare protection of marriage and household therapists, licensed counselors, and growth of psychiatric coaching residencies.
- Elimination of the redundant X-waiver requirement to prescribe buprenorphine for substance use issues.
X-waiver elimination
The Mainstreaming Addiction Treatment (MAT) Act, which eliminates the X waiver, was launched and led by Rep. Paul Tonko (D-NY). Mental Health America is happy that extra people, whether or not in rural or city areas, can have an improved potential to get remedy for opioid use dysfunction (OUD). Under Section 1262 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, well being suppliers not must submit a Notice of Intent, or have a waiver, to prescribe sure drugs, like buprenorphine, for the remedy of OUD. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and SAMHSA subsequently put out notices eliminating the extra X- waiver registration requirement, efficient instantly.
The elimination of the X-Waiver requirement signifies that:
- All prescriptions for buprenorphine for OUD now require solely a normal DEA registration quantity.
- SAMHSA is not accepting Notices of Intent to prescribe buprenorphine for opioid use dysfunction (i.e., X-waiver purposes).
- There are not any limits on the variety of sufferers a prescriber could deal with for OUD with buprenorphine.
- All practitioners should nonetheless adjust to relevant state legal guidelines and rules.
All well being care suppliers with a DEA registration that features Schedule III drugs can start to prescribe buprenorphine for OUD. However, some state legal guidelines, reminiscent of in Kentucky, require suppliers to have the X-waiver to deal with OUD with buprenorphine, also referred to as naloxone. Thus, advocates in states might want to conduct extra schooling of policymakers to make sure the repeal of any legal guidelines based mostly on the X-waiver requirement to verify shoppers have broad entry to OUD drugs as federal lawmakers supposed.
MHA continues to help the bipartisan work in Congress to handle substance use issues (SUDs), which most frequently co-occur with psychological well being situations. The Health Subcommittee lately carried out a listening to on extra problems with significance in combating the opioid disaster, together with laws that will start to ramp up surveillance of fentanyl trafficking, deal with cybersecurity threats related to 988, and prohibit federal well being plans from utilizing quality- adjusted life 12 months (QALY) in fee determinations.
To be taught extra about our suggestions to federal policymakers on SUD points, go to the Partnership to Amend 42 CFR Part 2 coalition’s web site, which simply submitted feedback to the administration on a rule aligning 42 CFR Part II with HIPAA.
While a lot progress was made, there may be nonetheless a lot to do within the 118 th Congress to teach and promote early intervention and prevention, a livable wage for peer specialists, and equitable entry to psychological well being and SUD companies for Black, Indigenous, and folks of coloration and LGBTQ+ populations. We are additionally working to carry expertise firms accountable for the harms of social media overuse by way of the Kids Online Safety Act. Read extra about our 2023 priorities and encourage a cherished one to affix our Advocacy Network to ramp up the variety of voices which are a part of our grassroots strain on Congress and the Administration to design higher insurance policies.