Immediate Opportunities for Biden Administration to Combat Opioid Crisis

There are several key federal opportunities that the Biden Administration and Congress can take advantage of to help end the opioid crisis right now, according to an op-ed in The Hill.

The Partnership to End Addiction’s chief external and government relations officer Marcia Taylor, alongside Tom McLellan, the former deputy director of the White House Office on National Drug Control Policy, and Paul Samuels, the president and director of the Legal Action Center, write that the Biden Administration and Congress must take certain steps immediately to combat the opioid crisis. These include establishing telehealth as a permanent option; passing the Medicaid Reentry Act; ensuring adequate coverage in Medicare; and eliminating the X waiver for prescribing buprenorphine.

The authors write that these initiatives can not only help fight the opioid epidemic, but create greater health equity in the United States overall.