House Approves Senate-passed Levin-Hatch bill to Increase Availability of Drug to Combat Heroin Addiction

The bill now goes to President Bush to be signed into law

WASHINGTON – The House today voted 429-0 to approve a bill authored by Sens. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, to ease restrictions on physician group practices for prescribing buprenorphine, a medication that treats heroin addiction by blocking the craving for the drug. Following FDA approval of buprenorphine, known as “bup,” in 2002, the anti-addiction medication has proven successful in combating heroin addiction, but limits in the original law have severely restricted its distribution. The bill – which was approved by the Senate last week -- will now be sent to President Bush, who is expected to sign it into law.

“I’m thrilled that the House unanimously approved this bill to help expand access to buprenorphine, which has been successful in helping thousands of addicts get off – and stay off – heroin,” Levin said. “Bup has been hailed as a ‘miracle drug’ by medical professionals and addicts alike, but the arbitrary distribution limits on group practices and hospitals have prevented many addicts who are seeking treatment from obtaining access to the medication.”

“Patient by patient, the Drug Addiction Treatment Act is greatly improving heroin treatment in Utah and across our country,” Hatch said. “Today the House adopted the Levin-Hatch Bill, S.45, that will allow more heroin addicts to be treated in office settings by qualified doctors with a new class of anti-addiction drugs, such as buprenorphine. With each patient enrolled, lives are saved and the cycle of drug abuse and crime can be broken.”

In 2000, Congress passed legislation authored by Senator Levin and Senator Orrin Hatch, the Drug Abuse and Treatment Act (DATA), which for the first time, permitted qualified physicians to prescribe bup in their offices, eliminating the requirement that addicts travel to centralized public clinics, sometimes at great distances, to receive treatment with the more addictive medication, methadone. In order to get it passed, the sponsors of DATA agreed to a provision that limited physicians to treating no more than 30 patients. Unfortunately, this provision was applied not just to single physicians, but to group practices, hospitals, and health care organizations, thus preventing large numbers of addicts from gaining access to the medication.

The Levin-Hatch bill addresses this unintended effect of DATA by applying the 30-patient limit to each physician in a practice rather than to the practice as a whole. The Senators contend that this action will greatly expand access to the drug, and in turn reduce heroin addiction and heroin-related crimes in our communities.