Dr. James Murphy has been working with legislators to put forth a bill which will increase access to Buprenorphine in this state. It has been the position of KYSAM and ASAM that the current Buprenorphine/Naloxone regulations as well as the proposed new regulation are both out of date and not evidence based. They are inflexible and result in physicians not wanting to prescribe Buprenorphine/Naloxone because of fear of getting into trouble with the board. Please view these two proposed bills. One was filed in the House by Rep. Lisa Willner, and one was filed in the Senate by Sen. Julie Raque Adams. It is common for the same bill to be filed in both the Senate and House. The Senate bill is SB 82, and the House bill is HB 153. A link to each bill is attached.
HB 153 says in part:
Create a new section of KRS Chapter 13A to find 201 KAR 9:270 and 201 KAR 20:065 deficient and void; create new sections of KRS Chapters 311, 313, 314, and 315 to establish that the State Board of Medical Licensure, Board of Dentistry, Kentucky Board of Nursing, and Kentucky Board of Pharmacy shall not promulgate administrative regulations that restrict or limit the prescribing, dispensing, or administering of buprenorphine-mono-product, buprenorphine-combined-with-naloxone, or any other Schedule III, IV, or V medication approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of a substance use disorder; EMERGENCY.
SB82 says in part;
Create a new section of KRS Chapter 13A to find 201 KAR 9:270 and 201 KAR 20:065 deficient and void; create new sections of KRS Chapters 311, 313, 314, and 315 to establish that the State Board of Medical Licensure, Board of Dentistry, Kentucky Board of Nursing, and Kentucky Board of Pharmacy shall not promulgate administrative regulations that restrict or limit the prescribing, dispensing, or administering of buprenorphine-mono-product, buprenorphine-combined-with-naloxone, or any other Schedule III, IV, or V medication approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of a substance use disorder; EMERGENCY..
You can read the full bills by clicking here.
HB 153: https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/record/26rs/hb153.html
SB 82: https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/record/26rs/sb82.html
Please contact your legislators and voice your support for these bills. You can find your legislator by going to legislature.ky.gov and clicking on legislators. There are many people suffering from addiction who are not coming to clinics for various reasons. Will this solve that issue completely? Of course not, but it does open some additional avenues for patients to get treatment. If more people are prescribing, then there is more access.