Large health plans and other group providers will be able to treat larger numbers of opioid-dependent patients, thanks to a bill passed recently by Congress.
The measure lifts a cap that allowed practices to treat no more than 30 such patients at any time. “There has been broad acknowledgement that the 30-patient group limit doesn't make sense from a clinical perspective or any other perspective,” Nicholas Myers, director of government relations at the American Psychiatric Association, in Arlington, Va., said in an interview.
The limit, which applied to group practices and individual physicians, was a response to concern about the potential for diversion and abuse, he said. The individual physician limit remains in place.