Despite decades of research demonstrating its effectiveness in treating opioid use disorder (OUD), methadone remains stigmatized and inaccessible. Most people with opioid use disorder still do not receive treatment, particularly evidence-based medications.
Federal law limits methadone’s availability to specific clinics – known as opioid treatment programs (OTPs) – rather than allowing it to be provided at a doctor’s office or pharmacy like other medications. Notably, when methadone is used to treat pain, such restrictions do not apply.
Patients are often required to go to OTPs daily to take the medication, which can present barriers due to employment, education, child care, transportation, etc. Roughly 80% of U.S. counties do not have an OTP that can dispense methadone. These barriers, as well as the stigma around methadone stemming from the strict regulations that differentiate it from other medications, can often prevent people from seeking needed treatment.
The Modernizing Opioid Treatment Access Act 2.0 (S. 4941/H.R. 9790) would modernize methadone rules by empowering physicians board-certified in addiction medicine or addiction psychiatry to prescribe methadone and allowing pharmacies to dispense it, which would improve patients’ ability to access treatment. There are only about 2,100 OTPs nationwide, compared to over 60,000 pharmacies. The bill would also allow HHS to designate additional providers who can prescribe methadone for OUD and require the federal government to provide an annual report of the number of providers registered to prescribe methadone, number of pharmacies that ordered methadone, and violations related to prescribing methadone for OUD.
Ask your members of Congress to support the Modernizing Opioid Treatment Access Act 2.0 to increase access to life-saving treatment for opioid addiction.