Several House and Senate committees are examining various legislative solutions as part of a comprehensive effort to address the opioid crisis. In one such instance, the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee last week held a hearing to consider a discussion draft of the Overdose Prevention and Patient Safety Act, authored by Reps. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) and Earl Blumenauer (D-OR).  This bill would change existing law to permit SUD treatment records, currently governed under 42 CFR Part 2 (referred to as “Part 2”), to be shared in accordance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), for the purposes of treatment, payment and healthcare operations. Subcommittee Chairman Michael Burgess (R-TX) noted that a hospital in his district indicated that Part 2, as currently written, “could be a disincentive for health care systems seeking to open addiction treatment centers” and urged support of the legislation to assist with patient care coordination. The bill would also increase the penalties in the event of disclosure, add breach notification requirements, and provide discrimination prohibitions to protect people seeking and receiving SUD treatment.

Last week, President Trump proposed a $15.3 billion rescission package, a budgetary process to take back money previously appropriated by Congress. After a president recommends a rescission, Congress has 45 days to approve the request. If the rescission package is approved by a majority vote in the House and the Senate, it will be enacted; if a majority does not approve, the proposed rescission does not take effect. This rescission package was introduced in the House (HR 3, the Spending Cuts to Expired and Unnecessary Programs Act) by Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and includes a cut of $7 billion from the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP):  $5.15 billion from Fiscal Year (FY) 2017 allotments to states to administer CHIP, and an additional $1.87 billion from FY 2018 CHIP contingency funds that provide payments to states in the event of shortfalls.  Russ Vought, deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, said “Rescinding these funds will have no impact on the program…At some point Congress will likely ‘rescind’ those funds as a budget gimmick to offset new spending elsewhere, as it did on the recently passed omnibus. Instead Congress should rescind the money now.”  According to the Congressional Budget Office, these cuts will not affect “the number of individuals with insurance coverage.”  House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) added:  “Once people understand what this actually is, I think people's minds are set to ease. This is money that cannot be spent, and this is money that will not be spent, and we already passed the longest extension of CHIP in the history of the program — a 10-year extension.”