Advocacy in action: Providing DOs with a voice in opioid discussions

Through collaborations with the White House and Congress, the AOA continues its efforts to address the nation’s opioid epidemic.

Recently, AOA representatives attended a White House event, Champions of Change for Advancing Prevention, Treatment and Recovery.

This event comes on the heels of the AOA’s participation in the National Rx Drug Abuse and Heroin Summit, and the AOA’s work with AACOM to secure commitments from 27 osteopathic medical schools to provide students with prescriber education prior to graduation.

Opioid bills move through Congress

Over the past two weeks, the House Energy and Commerce Committee moved a dozen bills through the legislative markup process in order to help tackle the opioid epidemic. The bills address different issues, including:

• Grants to encourage co-prescribing of naloxone, an opioid overdose reversal medication.
• Establishing a task force to review and update best practices for pain management and pain medication prescribing.
• Increasing the cap on, and expanding the scope of, health care professionals who can treat patients with opioid use disorders with buprenorphine, among others.

The AOA is helping to secure changes to this legislative package to ensure that non-pharmacological approaches such as osteopathic manipulative treatment are considered in the development of improved pain management strategies.