The U.S. Senate yesterday passed The Opioid Crisis Response Act of 2018, which includes numerous important health IT provisions, by a vote of 99-1.
The bill was originally sponsored by Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and ranking member Patty Murray (D-Wash.), and includes proposals from five Senate committees and over 70 senators. The House passed its version of the legislation in June and now it’s expected that a committee will be convened to reconcile the differences between the two.
The legislation’s core purpose is to improve the ability of various health departments and agencies—such as the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), including the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), and the Departments of Education and Labor—to address the opioid crisis, including the ripple effects of the crisis on children, families, and communities, help states implement updates to their plans of safe care, and improve data sharing between states.
There are several key health IT provisions in the legislation, including: enabling the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to test various models that provide incentive payments to behavioral health providers for the adoption and use of certified electronic health record (EHR) technology to improve the quality and coordination of care through the electronic documentation and exchange of health information; requiring the use of electronic prescribing for controlled substances within Medicare Part D; facilitating the use of electronic prior authorization within Medicare Part D; and expanding access to telehealth services for substance use disorders.
Regarding telehealth specifically, the Senate version of the bill will allow for payment for substance use disorder treatment services, via telehealth, to Medicare beneficiaries at originating sites, including a beneficiary’s home, regardless of geographic location. It also requires guidance to cover state options for federal reimbursement for substance use disorder services and treatment using telehealth including, services addressing high-risk individuals, provider education through a hub-and-spoke model, and options for providing telehealth services to students in school-based health centers.
Health IT Now's Opioid Safety Alliance—a working group of prescribers, health systems, technology companies, pharmacies and pharmacists, professional societies, and patients advocating for the use of technology to fight illegitimate opioid use—supported the Senate’s passing of the bill. Said Joel White, HITN Opioid Safety Alliance executive director, “We are especially encouraged by the inclusion of commonsense Opioid Safety Alliance-endorsed language in this bill that will remove bureaucratic barriers to vital telehealth services for those suffering from addiction, modernize prescribing practices for controlled substances, and streamline prior authorization claims to improve efficiency while bolstering patient safety. These solutions can make a world of difference both in dollars saved and, more importantly, lives spared."
White did add, however, as Congress convenes a committee to reconcile the differences in the House and Senate-passed bills, lawmakers ought to include the House-passed OPPS Act (H.R. 6082) as part of any final conference agreement, “thereby ensuring that addiction treatment records are no longer needlessly isolated from the rest of a patient's medical history—a practice that has hindered informed decision making and threatened patient safety for too long.”
Indeed, the Senate version of the bill requires HHS “to develop best practices for prominently displaying substance use treatment information in electronic health records, when requested by the patient.”
White also noted, “Additionally, OSA remains concerned about the lack of real-time, actionable data provided to clinicians by states' prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs). With lawmakers poised to devote additional resources toward these programs, we should know if taxpayers are getting a return on their investment. We support the inclusion of language that would require an objective study and report on states' use of PDMP technology."
As stated in the bill, states and localities would be provided with support to improve their PDMPs and "implement other evidence-based prevention strategies.” The bill also “encourages data sharing between states, and supports other prevention and research activities related to controlled substances."
What’s more, another section of the bill reauthorizes an HHS grant program “to allow states to develop, maintain, or improve PDMPs and improve the interoperability of PDMPs with other states and with other health information technology.”
Sen. Alexander, meanwhile, said yesterday he is “already working to combine the Senate and House-passed bills into an even stronger law to fight the nation’s worst public health crisis, and there is a bipartisan sense of urgency to send the bill to the President quickly.”
