On May 9 and May 17, 2018, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce ordered 59 bills to be reported related to the nation’s response to the opioid epidemic. Because of the large number of related bills ordered reported by the Committee, CBO is publishing a single comprehensive document that includes estimates for each piece of legislation.
H.R. 5605, the Advancing High Quality Treatment for Opioid Use Disorders in Medicare Act, would establish a five-year demonstration program to increase access to treatment for opioid use disorder. The demonstration would provide incentive payments and funding for care management services based on criteria such as patient engagement, use of evidence-based treatments, and treatment length and intensity. Under the bill, the Secretary of Health and Human Services would be directed to encourage other payers to coordinate payments for opioid use disorder treatments and to evaluate the extent to which the demonstration reduces hospitalizations, increases the use of medication-assisted treatments, and improves the health outcomes of individuals with opioid use disorders during and after the demonstration. Based on historical utilization of opioid use disorder treatments and projected spending on incentive payments and care management fees, CBO estimates that increased use of treatment services and the demonstration’s incentive payments would increase direct spending by $122 million over the 2019-2028 period.
