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What you should know about the new opioid reform law

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November 6, 2018

President Trump recently signed into law HR 6, the Substance Use-Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment (SUPPORT) for Patients and Communities Act. This bipartisan legislation includes almost 200 provisions to provide for opioid use disorder prevention, recovery, and treatment.

The legislation, which passed the House by a vote of 393-8 in September and the Senate by a vote of 98-1 in October, reportedly represents the largest legislative effort to combat a single drug crisis in U.S. history.

“This bipartisan legislation brings critical support to the communities most desperately in need,” said the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Greg Walden’s (R-OR). “[The Act] provides new tools and resources for those on the ground in this fight, and helps stop the flow of deadly drugs across our borders.”

“Rarely can we say that legislation will save lives,” added Walden, “but there is no doubt that this bill will do just that.”

Here are a few key provisions under each of the legislation’s eight main sections:

Title I—Medicaid Provisions to Address the Opioid Crisis

• Requires state Medicaid programs to suspend, as opposed to terminate, a juvenile’s medical assistance eligibility when a juvenile is incarcerated, and requires states to ensure that former foster youth are able to keep their Medicaid coverage across state lines until the age of 26.

• State Medicaid programs are now required to have safety edits in place for opioid refills, monitor concurrent prescribing of opioids and certain other drugs, and monitor antipsychotic prescribing for children.

• Directs the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to issue guidance on states’ options for treating and managing beneficiaries’ pain through non-opioid pain treatment and management options under Medicaid.

Title II—Medicare Provisions to Address the Opioid Crisis

• Expands the use of telehealth services to Medicare beneficiaries for the treatment of substance use disorders and co-occurring mental health disorders.

• Increases screening for opioid use disorder and other substance use disorders among Medicare beneficiaries, during Medicare wellness and preventive care visits, facilitating early detection and treatment.

• Deters prescription fraud and the diversion of opioids through the use of e-prescribing for opioids.

• Expands Medicare coverage to include Opioid Treatment Programs (OTPs) for the purposes of delivering Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) to expand access to treatment options for Medicare beneficiaries.

Title III—FDA and Controlled Substance Provisions

• Requires the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to hold at least one public meeting to address the challenges and barriers of developing nonaddictive medical products intended to treat pain or addiction, and issue new, or update existing, guidance documents

• Clarifies FDA’s authority to require drug manufacturers to package certain opioids to allow for a set treatment duration, for example, a blister pack with a 3 or 7-day supply and takes into consideration patients with functional limitations.

• Increases the number of waivered health care providers that can prescribe or dispense medication-assisted treatment (MAT) by authorizing clinical nurse specialists, certified nurse midwives, and certified registered nurse anesthetists to prescribe MAT for five years.

• Updates federal law to allow for implantable or injectable controlled substances for the purposes of maintenance or detoxification treatment to be delivered by a pharmacy to an administering practitioner while maintaining proper controls, such as storage and record keeping.

Title IV—Offsets

• Requires reporting by group health plans of prescription drug coverage information for purposes of identifying primary payer situations under the Medicare program.

Title V—Other Medicaid Provisions

• Requires state Children’s Health Insurance Programs (CHIP) to cover mental health benefits, including substance use disorder services for eligible pregnant women and children.

• Requires Medicaid providers to check relevant prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) before prescribing a Schedule II controlled substance.

• Provides state Medicaid programs with the option to cover care in certain Institutions for Mental Diseases (IMD), which may be otherwise non-federally reimbursable.

Title VI—Other Medicare Provisions

• Promotes the testing of incentive payments for behavioral health providers for adoption and use of certified electronic health record technology through the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI).

• Establishes an action plan, including studies, HHS-authored reports to Congress, and meetings with stakeholders, for the purpose of addressing the opioid crisis.

• Provides grants to Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) and Rural Health Clinics (RHCs) to help offset the cost of training providers to dispense medications for treatment of opioid use disorder.

Title VII—Public Health Provisions

• Requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services, in coordination with the U.S. Surgeon General, to submit a report to Congress on the public health effects of the rise in synthetic drug use among adolescents and young adults in order to further educate parents and the medical community on the health effects of synthetics.

• Expands a grant program authorized by the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, which was designed to allow first responders to administer a drug or device, like naloxone, to treat an opioid overdose, to include training on safety around fentanyl, carfentanil, and other dangerous licit and illicit drugs.

• Directs the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to establish a public information dashboard linking to HHS programs and publicly available data related to opioid and other substance use disorders.

• Requires HHS, in consultation with the Attorney General (AG), to submit to Congress a report on the impact of federal and state laws and regulations that limit the length, quantity, or dosage of opioid prescriptions

• Requires the Secretary to issue a report to Congress offering recommendations for pain management practices during pregnancy and for prevention, identification, and reduction of opioid and other substance use disorders during pregnancy.

• Provides resources for hospitals and other entities to develop protocols on discharging patients who have presented with an opioid overdose.

Title VIII—Miscellaneous

• Directs the Commissioner of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Postmaster General, in coordination with the heads of other Federal agencies as appropriate, to collaborate to identify and develop technology that will improve the detection of synthetic opioids, as well as other narcotics and psychoactive substances, entering the United States by mail.

• Makes it illegal to knowingly and willfully pay or receive kickbacks in return for referring a patient to a recovery home or clinical treatment facilities.

• Reauthorizes the Office of National Drug Control Policy, the Drug Free Communities program, and the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas program.

Joe Carter

Joe Carter is the author of The Life and Faith Field Guide for Parents, the editor of the NIV Lifehacks Bible, and the co-author of How to Argue Like Jesus: Learning Persuasion from History’s Greatest Communicator. He also serves as an executive pastor at the McLean Bible Church Arlington location in Arlington, Virginia. Read More

Article 12: The Future of AI

We affirm that AI will continue to be developed in ways that we cannot currently imagine or understand, including AI that will far surpass many human abilities. God alone has the power to create life, and no future advancements in AI will usurp Him as the Creator of life. The church has a unique role in proclaiming human dignity for all and calling for the humane use of AI in all aspects of society.

We deny that AI will make us more or less human, or that AI will ever obtain a coequal level of worth, dignity, or value to image-bearers. Future advancements in AI will not ultimately fulfill our longings for a perfect world. While we are not able to comprehend or know the future, we do not fear what is to come because we know that God is omniscient and that nothing we create will be able to thwart His redemptive plan for creation or to supplant humanity as His image-bearers.

Genesis 1; Isaiah 42:8; Romans 1:20-21; 5:2; Ephesians 1:4-6; 2 Timothy 1:7-9; Revelation 5:9-10

Article 11: Public Policy

We affirm that the fundamental purposes of government are to protect human beings from harm, punish those who do evil, uphold civil liberties, and to commend those who do good. The public has a role in shaping and crafting policies concerning the use of AI in society, and these decisions should not be left to those who develop these technologies or to governments to set norms.

We deny that AI should be used by governments, corporations, or any entity to infringe upon God-given human rights. AI, even in a highly advanced state, should never be delegated the governing authority that has been granted by an all-sovereign God to human beings alone. 

Romans 13:1-7; Acts 10:35; 1 Peter 2:13-14

Article 10: War

We affirm that the use of AI in warfare should be governed by love of neighbor and the principles of just war. The use of AI may mitigate the loss of human life, provide greater protection of non-combatants, and inform better policymaking. Any lethal action conducted or substantially enabled by AI must employ 5 human oversight or review. All defense-related AI applications, such as underlying data and decision-making processes, must be subject to continual review by legitimate authorities. When these systems are deployed, human agents bear full moral responsibility for any actions taken by the system.

We deny that human agency or moral culpability in war can be delegated to AI. No nation or group has the right to use AI to carry out genocide, terrorism, torture, or other war crimes.

Genesis 4:10; Isaiah 1:16-17; Psalm 37:28; Matthew 5:44; 22:37-39; Romans 13:4

Article 9: Security

We affirm that AI has legitimate applications in policing, intelligence, surveillance, investigation, and other uses supporting the government’s responsibility to respect human rights, to protect and preserve human life, and to pursue justice in a flourishing society.

We deny that AI should be employed for safety and security applications in ways that seek to dehumanize, depersonalize, or harm our fellow human beings. We condemn the use of AI to suppress free expression or other basic human rights granted by God to all human beings.

Romans 13:1-7; 1 Peter 2:13-14

Article 8: Data & Privacy

We affirm that privacy and personal property are intertwined individual rights and choices that should not be violated by governments, corporations, nation-states, and other groups, even in the pursuit of the common good. While God knows all things, it is neither wise nor obligatory to have every detail of one’s life open to society.

We deny the manipulative and coercive uses of data and AI in ways that are inconsistent with the love of God and love of neighbor. Data collection practices should conform to ethical guidelines that uphold the dignity of all people. We further deny that consent, even informed consent, although requisite, is the only necessary ethical standard for the collection, manipulation, or exploitation of personal data—individually or in the aggregate. AI should not be employed in ways that distort truth through the use of generative applications. Data should not be mishandled, misused, or abused for sinful purposes to reinforce bias, strengthen the powerful, or demean the weak.

Exodus 20:15, Psalm 147:5; Isaiah 40:13-14; Matthew 10:16 Galatians 6:2; Hebrews 4:12-13; 1 John 1:7 

Article 7: Work

We affirm that work is part of God’s plan for human beings participating in the cultivation and stewardship of creation. The divine pattern is one of labor and rest in healthy proportion to each other. Our view of work should not be confined to commercial activity; it must also include the many ways that human beings serve each other through their efforts. AI can be used in ways that aid our work or allow us to make fuller use of our gifts. The church has a Spirit-empowered responsibility to help care for those who lose jobs and to encourage individuals, communities, employers, and governments to find ways to invest in the development of human beings and continue making vocational contributions to our lives together.

We deny that human worth and dignity is reducible to an individual’s economic contributions to society alone. Humanity should not use AI and other technological innovations as a reason to move toward lives of pure leisure even if greater social wealth creates such possibilities.

Genesis 1:27; 2:5; 2:15; Isaiah 65:21-24; Romans 12:6-8; Ephesians 4:11-16

Article 6: Sexuality

We affirm the goodness of God’s design for human sexuality which prescribes the sexual union to be an exclusive relationship between a man and a woman in the lifelong covenant of marriage.

We deny that the pursuit of sexual pleasure is a justification for the development or use of AI, and we condemn the objectification of humans that results from employing AI for sexual purposes. AI should not intrude upon or substitute for the biblical expression of sexuality between a husband and wife according to God’s design for human marriage.

Genesis 1:26-29; 2:18-25; Matthew 5:27-30; 1 Thess 4:3-4

Article 5: Bias

We affirm that, as a tool created by humans, AI will be inherently subject to bias and that these biases must be accounted for, minimized, or removed through continual human oversight and discretion. AI should be designed and used in such ways that treat all human beings as having equal worth and dignity. AI should be utilized as a tool to identify and eliminate bias inherent in human decision-making.

We deny that AI should be designed or used in ways that violate the fundamental principle of human dignity for all people. Neither should AI be used in ways that reinforce or further any ideology or agenda, seeking to subjugate human autonomy under the power of the state.

Micah 6:8; John 13:34; Galatians 3:28-29; 5:13-14; Philippians 2:3-4; Romans 12:10

Article 4: Medicine

We affirm that AI-related advances in medical technologies are expressions of God’s common grace through and for people created in His image and that these advances will increase our capacity to provide enhanced medical diagnostics and therapeutic interventions as we seek to care for all people. These advances should be guided by basic principles of medical ethics, including beneficence, non-maleficence, autonomy, and justice, which are all consistent with the biblical principle of loving our neighbor.

We deny that death and disease—effects of the Fall—can ultimately be eradicated apart from Jesus Christ. Utilitarian applications regarding healthcare distribution should not override the dignity of human life. Fur- 3 thermore, we reject the materialist and consequentialist worldview that understands medical applications of AI as a means of improving, changing, or completing human beings.

Matthew 5:45; John 11:25-26; 1 Corinthians 15:55-57; Galatians 6:2; Philippians 2:4

Article 3: Relationship of AI & Humanity

We affirm the use of AI to inform and aid human reasoning and moral decision-making because it is a tool that excels at processing data and making determinations, which often mimics or exceeds human ability. While AI excels in data-based computation, technology is incapable of possessing the capacity for moral agency or responsibility.

We deny that humans can or should cede our moral accountability or responsibilities to any form of AI that will ever be created. Only humanity will be judged by God on the basis of our actions and that of the tools we create. While technology can be created with a moral use in view, it is not a moral agent. Humans alone bear the responsibility for moral decision making.

Romans 2:6-8; Galatians 5:19-21; 2 Peter 1:5-8; 1 John 2:1

Article 2: AI as Technology

We affirm that the development of AI is a demonstration of the unique creative abilities of human beings. When AI is employed in accordance with God’s moral will, it is an example of man’s obedience to the divine command to steward creation and to honor Him. We believe in innovation for the glory of God, the sake of human flourishing, and the love of neighbor. While we acknowledge the reality of the Fall and its consequences on human nature and human innovation, technology can be used in society to uphold human dignity. As a part of our God-given creative nature, human beings should develop and harness technology in ways that lead to greater flourishing and the alleviation of human suffering.

We deny that the use of AI is morally neutral. It is not worthy of man’s hope, worship, or love. Since the Lord Jesus alone can atone for sin and reconcile humanity to its Creator, technology such as AI cannot fulfill humanity’s ultimate needs. We further deny the goodness and benefit of any application of AI that devalues or degrades the dignity and worth of another human being. 

Genesis 2:25; Exodus 20:3; 31:1-11; Proverbs 16:4; Matthew 22:37-40; Romans 3:23

Article 1: Image of God

We affirm that God created each human being in His image with intrinsic and equal worth, dignity, and moral agency, distinct from all creation, and that humanity’s creativity is intended to reflect God’s creative pattern.

We deny that any part of creation, including any form of technology, should ever be used to usurp or subvert the dominion and stewardship which has been entrusted solely to humanity by God; nor should technology be assigned a level of human identity, worth, dignity, or moral agency.

Genesis 1:26-28; 5:1-2; Isaiah 43:6-7; Jeremiah 1:5; John 13:34; Colossians 1:16; 3:10; Ephesians 4:24