Two House Committees to Markup Opioid Legislation This Week

The House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday will mark up four bills intended to address the opioid crisis. According to committee leaders, the bills will include provisions from nearly two dozen separate proposals, including two AHA-supported bills that cleared the Energy and Commerce Committee last week: H.R. 4841, which would standardize electronic prior authorization for prescription drugs under Medicare Part D; and H.R. 5686, which would require Medicare prescription drug plans to provide certain enrollees with information on the adverse effects of opioid overuse and coverage of alternative pain medications and devices. On Thursday, the Energy and Commerce Committee will mark up several bills, including AHA-supported bills that would improve information sharing regarding patients’ substance use disorder treatment history, and amend the Medicaid Institutions for Mental Disease exclusion. The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee last month approved bipartisan legislation that includes measures to reauthorize funding to states to address opioid abuse and provide support to improve the interoperability of state prescription drug monitoring programs, and the Senate Finance Committee is also considering opioid-related legislation.