Relates to enhancing patient access to medication assisted treatment for treatment of opioid disease

• Democratic3

◆ The sponsor's argument

Why Nathalia Fernandez says this is needed

As individuals struggle with substance use disorder, we need an all- hands-on deck approach to make sure care is accessible throughout New York State. This bill allows a physician and pharmacist to enter into a collaborate agreement to increase the number of individuals authorized to prescribe buprenorphine. The bill allows a physician to provide a non-patient specific order to the pharmacist for buprenorphine. The federal government has recently taken steps to increase the avail- ability of buprenorphine. With the passage of the bipartisan Mainstream- ing Addiction Treatment Act, Congress removed regulations requiring potential prescribers to register with the federal government. Buprenor- phine, one of three medications approved by the Food and Drug Adminis- tration for the treatment for OUD, reduces the risk of overdose, illicit opioid use, and the transmission of infectious disease that can accompa- ny injection drug use. With the registration requirement gone, health care providers with state and federal authority to prescribe narcotics can now prescribe buprenorphine. However, Buprenorphine prescribing remains low, despite the drug's over- all effectiveness and safety as a treatment for OUD. From 2016 through 2019, 20% of Medicare patients with OUD filled prescriptions for bupre- norphine, according to a recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine. Racial disparities also exist in prescribing of the drug, with white patients being 80% more likely to receive a prescription than Black patients and 25% more likely to receive a prescription than Latino patients. Additionally, some office-based practices are hesitant to accept new patients however pharmacies are the most accessible health care provider. States such as Nevada and Rhode Island have authorized physicians to collaborate with pharmacists to assess patients and if appropriate prescribe buprenorphine. Specifically in Rhode Island, a pilot study tracked the experiences of 100 patients who started taking buprenorphine after visiting a trained pharmacist for their care. Once stabilized on the medication, 58 patients were randomly assigned to receive either continued care in the pharmacy or usual care in a clinic or physician's office. After one month, the patients in the pharmacy care group showed dramatically higher rates of retention: 25 patients (89%) continued to receive treatment in the pharmacy compared to five (17%) in the usual care group. A third of patients in the study identified as Black, Indigenous, or persons of color, and almost half were without a perma- nent residence. With 6,000 pharmacies in New York State, pharmacists are widely accessi- ble and represent enormous potential to connect patients suffering from opiate use disorders to highly competent health care professionals and ongoing care. This legislation is yet another tool to reduce barriers to care for those who struggle with SUD utilizing the collaboration between a physician and pharmacist.

This is the sponsor's own case for the bill, quoted from their memorandum. It is not Agora's description of what the bill does.