Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA)
On July 22, 2016, President Obama signed the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA), into law. CARA aims to address the national epidemic of opioid addiction by creating and expanding federal grant programs to:
Temporarily expand eligibility to prescribe buprenorphine-based drugs for MAT for substance use disorders to qualifying nurse practitioners and physician assistants, through October 1, 2021;
Expand access to opioid overdose reversal drugs, by supporting the purchase and distribution of such medications and training for first responders;
Increase awareness and educate the public regarding the misuse of prescription opioids;
Reauthorize the National All Schedules Prescription Electronic Reporting (NASPER) Act, which provides grants to states to support and improve interoperability of PDMPs;
Authorize Medicare prescription drug plans to develop a safe prescribing and dispensing program for beneficiaries that are at risk of misuse or diversion of drugs that are frequently abused or diverted;
Create a comprehensive program at U.S. Department of Justice to improve efforts by law enforcement and the criminal justice system to address substance use disorders; and
Establish an HHS-led task force to consolidate federal best practices for pain management.
These measures are important steps for reducing the impact of prescription drug misuse on America's communities by preventing and responding to opioid addiction. However, given the large number of Americans with untreated or inadequately treated opioid use disorders and the current scarcity of treatment resources, there is concern that the lack of funding for the bill will prevent this new law from having a substantial impact on the nation's ongoing opioid epidemic.
