Senate panel backs opioid addiction, overdoes treatment access package

A Senate panel reported bipartisan legislation Wednesday that supporters have said would increase access to opioid and overdose treatment.

The nine-bill package was reported by the Senate Health Policy Committee  and is intended to enable people to more easily obtain medication treatment. Narcan would be more widely available under the bills.

Provisions in the package include banning Medicaid and private insurers from requiring prior authorization for medications including naloxone and, eliminating the limit on mobile opioid treatment units per provider and requiring Medicaid to cover “street medicine” services, including the mobile units delivering health and social care .

Other bills in the package would decriminalize possession of drug testing strips, mandate doctors to co-prescribe Narcan with opioid prescriptions and would require pharmacies to stock and dispense medications including buprenorphine without excessive delay.

Two final bills would require at least one employee at each K-12 school to have training for administering Narcan while also exempting those employees from liability or damages caused by administration or the lack of it, except for cases of gross misconduct.

The votes were unanimous on all Senate bills.

Kristopher Nicholoff, executive director and CEO of the Michigan Osteopathic Association, thanked the committee for its action in a statement, saying it would reduce barriers for obtaining addiction treatment.

“By focusing on eliminating barriers keeping Michiganders from seeking or accessing treatment, we will have a stronger, better system for treatment addiction in our state,” Nicholoff said.

Michigan State Medical Society President Amit Ghose echoed Nicholoff in a statement,

“We support the effort to cut red tape that stands in the way of when patients try to seek treatment,” Ghose said. “We look forward to working with legislators on positive and practical solutions to ensure a stronger, fairer and more effective addiction care system in our state.”