President Obama Announces New Steps to Fight Opioid Abuse Epidemic

On October 21, 2015, President Obama announced new initiatives to fight the nation’s opioid abuse epidemic. The President discussed several plans for doing so, such as: expanding access to drug treatment, increasing the number of physicians who can prescribe a drug used to treat opiate addiction, doubling the number of providers that can prescribe a drug to reverse the effects of an opioid overdose, and directing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to invest $8.5 million in opioid addiction prevention.

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In Michigan and New York, prescription drug abuse has become a high priority for law enforcement officials including enforcement actions directly targeting physicians, dentists and other prescribers as well as dispensers such as pharmacies and pharmacists. Such health care providers are well advised to take appropriate care to prevent the abuse and misuse of controlled substances and to maintain proper documentation of the medical necessity and legitimacy of such prescriptions.

Robert S. Iwrey, Esq., a founding partner of The Health Law Partners, P.C., practices in all areas of healthcare law and devotes a substantial portion of his practice assisting clients in pharmacy legal matters including compliance, third party payor audits, government investigations, state licensing and DEA registrations. For more information regarding this article, please contact Robert S. Iwrey, Esq. at (248) 996-8510 or (212) 734-0128 or riwrey@thehlp.com.