Federal addiction treatment providers also could come in for an increase in reimbursement rates, as the commission wants the Department of Health and Human Services to more adequately measure and cover the “true costs” of treating substance use disorder, including use of inpatient psychiatric facilities.

In addition, the commission wants the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to review policies that incentivize the prescription of opioids over more expensive non-opioid treatments; it also recommends lowering barriers to treatment, including those that impose limits on access to any of the three forms of medication-assisted treatment approved by the Food and Drug Administration. It also wants access to recovery coaches improved.

Some states restrict who among emergency responders can administer naloxone, and the guidelines of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (which oversees the federal Office of Emergency Medical Services) guidelines currently recommend that paramedics and advanced medical technicians be allowed by local communities to administer naloxone. The report also says they should be reviewed to allow emergency medical technicians to also administer the medication, and in higher doses.

It will ask that the Drug Enforcement Administration require prescribers renewing licenses to prescribe opioids prove that they’ve participated in an opioid prescription education program, as well as recommending that HHS develop a “national curriculum and standard of care for opioid prescribers,” and that pharmacists receive training “on best practices to evaluate the legitimacy of opioid prescriptions.”

The report also recommends that CMS remove questions about pain levels from patient satisfaction surveys to be sure that providers aren’t looking to boost patient approval by prescribing opioids.