S. 1455

Recovery Enhancement for Addiction Treatment Act or the TREAT Act

(Sec. 2) This bill amends the Controlled Substances Act to revise the requirements for a practitioner to administer, dispense, or prescribe narcotic drugs for maintenance or detoxification treatment in an office-based opioid treatment program.

Currently, a practitioner must notify the Department of Health and Human Services and certify that he or she is a qualifying physician (i.e., a state-licensed physician with certain expertise), has the capacity to refer patients for appropriate counseling and ancillary services, and will comply with a patient limit. The patient limit is how many patients the practitioner can treat under the office-based treatment program at one time.

This bill expands qualifying practitioners to include licensed nurse practitioners and physician assistants who have expertise and prescribe medications for opioid use disorder in collaboration with or under the supervision of a qualifying physician, if required by state law.

It increases the maximum patient limit for a qualifying practitioner and requires compliance with recordkeeping requirements.

(Sec. 4) The amendments made by this bill do not preempt a state law that modifies the patient limit or requires a qualifying practitioner to comply with additional requirements.

(Sec. 5) DOJ must update regulations with respect to waived practitioners to include nurse practitioners and physician assistants.

(Sec. 6) The Government Accountability Office must evaluate the effectiveness of this bill.