Three anonymous officials came forward to speak out about the pending announcement that Biden intends to halt the Trump administrations plan which allow more physicians to prescribe an opioid-treatment drug for those suffering from addiction.
Under the Jan. 14 announcement, many physicians would have been exempted from the “X” waiver. This was a two-decade-old requirement, first mandated by Congress, to undergo a day’s training before perscribing buprenorphine for opioid use disorder.
The Trump administration circumvented Congress’s requirements by issuing new “clinical guidelines” with the assistance of that would have enabled doctors with a Drug Enforcement Administration narcotics prescribing license to avoid the training.
Organizations like the American Medical Association (AMA) welcomed the revision as relief to take control of the spiraling increase of the opioid-crisis.
Then-presidential candidate Joe Biden vowed to lift these rules if elected president. But some legal experts warned that the DHHS lacked the authority to issue guidelines that allowed physicians to avoid requirements mandated by Congress.
