{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.paul.senate.gov/news-opioid-bill-containing-dr-rand-pauls-provisions-expand-access-treatment-passes-senate/", "Opioid Bill Containing Dr. Rand Paul\u2019s Provisions to Expand Access to Treatment Passes Senate", "2018-10-03", "2018", "2018-10", "Republican", "Senate", "KY", "Rand Paul", "P000603", "www.paul.senate.gov", "paul", "https://www.paul.senate.gov/news/", "scraper", "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:\n\nOctober 3, 2018\n\nContact: Press@paul.senate.gov, 202-224-4343\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 Today, U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) applauded final Senate passage of H.R. 6, the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act, legislation to combat the opioid crisis that contains provisions Dr. Paul has championed to allow more Americans struggling with addiction to find treatment.\n\n\u201cThe opioid epidemic has devastated individuals and families throughout Kentucky and all across America, which is why I\u2019ve led the fight to expand access to treatment by removing artificial roadblocks so more people are able to get the help they need. I applaud Congress for building on the progress we have made in the last few years by permanently extending the increased patient cap for Suboxone and ensuring more health care providers can administer treatment, and I look forward to the President signing this important bipartisan legislation into law,\u201d said Dr. Paul.\n\nA physician by trade for over 20 years, Dr. Paul has been a leading advocate for increasing treatment opportunities for patients struggling with drug addiction by eliminating Washington\u2019s overreaching and misguided restrictions on patients\u2019 access to treatment.\n\nThe inclusion and passage of these provisions are a result of Dr. Paul\u2019s steadfast commitment to this issue, and reflect the language of his 2015 TREAT Act as well as his subsequent efforts to make permanent a 2016 change in federal regulations that raised the cap on the number of patients a physician can treat with buprenorphine (a key component in Suboxone) from 100 to 275.\n\nBACKGROUND:\n\nThe final language of H.R. 6 includes the provisions from the Addiction Treatment Access Improvement Act (S.2317), which Dr. Paul introduced with Senators Ed Markey (D-MA), Maggie Hassan (D-NH) and Susan Collins (R-ME) in January 2018. Those provisions do the following:\n\n\u00b7 Codifies the 275-patient cap for physicians, and sets the initial first year patient limit at 100 patients\n\n\u00b7 Makes permanent the 5-year allowance included in the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) of 2016 for Physicians Assistants and Nurse Practitioners to prescribe addiction treatment drugs\n\n\u00b7 Expands this authority for 5 years to three other advanced practice registered nurse (APRN) specialties: certified nurse midwives, clinical nurse specialists, and certified-registered nurse anesthetists.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-06-27T23:08:35Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.paul.senate.gov/news-opioid-bill-containing-dr-rand-pauls-provisions-expand-access-treatment-passes-senate/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4766459353268147, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}