On December 29, 2022, with the signing of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 (the “Act”), Congress eliminated the “DATA-Waiver Program”. The elimination of the X-Waiver will increase access to buprenorphine for those in need.
All DEA registrants should be aware of the following:
• A DATA-Waiver registration is no longer required to treat patients with buprenorphine for opioid use disorder.
• Going forward, all prescriptions for buprenorphine only require a standard DEA registration number. The previously used DATA-Waiver registration numbers are no longer needed for any prescription.
• There are no longer any limits or patient caps on the number of patients a prescriber may treat for opioid use disorder with buprenorphine.
• The Act does not impact existing state laws or regulations that may be applicable. Separately, the Act also introduced new training requirements for all prescribers. These requirements will not go into effect until June 21, 2023. The DEA and SAMHSA are actively working to provide further guidance, and DEA will follow up with additional information on these requirements shortly. Importantly, these new requirements do not impact the changes related to elimination of the DATA-Waiver Program described above.
For more information, contact The Nan Gallagher Law Group at Info@DocAdvocates.com.