A bipartisan group of U.S. senators, including Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., have reintroduced the Non-Opioids Prevent Addiction in the Nation (NOPAIN) Act.
The legislation, co-authored by Sens. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and Rob Portman, R-Ohio, aims to address barriers to non-opioid pain management for those enrolled in Medicare.
Under current law, hospitals receive the same payment from Medicare regardless of whether a physician prescribes an opioid or a non-opioid. As a result, hospitals rely on opioids, which are typically dispensed by a pharmacy after discharge at little or no cost to the hospital. The NOPAIN Act would change this policy by directing CMS to provide separate Medicare reimbursement for non-opioid treatments used to manage pain in both the hospital outpatient department (HOPD) and the ambulatory surgery center (ASC) settings.
“An important part of this approach is ensuring that the Medicare program does not create a perverse incentive for doctors to continue to prescribe opioids to patients,” Capito said. "Instead, we should incentivize providers to utilize innovative non-opioid drugs and devices. The NOPAIN Act is an important step forward in preventing future addiction.”
“I am proud to reintroduce this bipartisan legislation to prioritize reimbursements for non-opioid treatments to ensure that non-opioid treatments are used whenever possible,” Manchin said. "We must address the drug epidemic so our communities can recover from the impacts of this terrible crisis, and I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support our commonsense legislation.”
U.S. Reps. Terri Sewell, D-Ala., and David McKinley, R-W.Va., plan to re-introduced companion legislation.