Last week, we passed dozens of bills aimed at combatting the opioid epidemic by improving federal treatment and prevention efforts.  We expanded research into this health crisis, empowered agencies to stem the flow of illegal opioids, encouraged efforts to get excess opioid medications out of circulation, study alternative pain treatment methods and more.

But our work to combat this crisis isn’t over. That’s why this week, we continued that effort by passing 20 more bills to enhance opioid addiction treatment and abuse prevention efforts. These include expanding access to treatment on Medicare, cracking down on fraudulent prescribers, encouraging less addictive methods of pain treatment and much more. You can read more about those bills below:

H.R. 3192, CHIP Mental Health Parity Act—requires Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) plans to cover mental health and substance use disorder services

H.R. 4005, Medicaid Reentry Act—improves treatment support for individuals returning to community post-incarceration

H.R. 5590, Opioid Addiction Action Plan Act—requires CMS to develop a plan to enhance opioid addiction treatment and prevention, and the coverage and payment of medication-assisted treatment.

H.R. 5687, SOUND Disposal and Packaging Act—encourages and promotes improved opioid packaging and disposal methods.

H.R. 5605, Advancing High Quality Treatment for Opioid Use Disorders in Medicare Act—establishes a demonstration program to improve and increase treatment for opioid use disorders and reduce Medicare expenditures.

H.R. 5796, REACH OUT Act of 2018— requires CMS to award grants, contracts or cooperative agreements to support efforts to curb outlier prescribers of opioids under the Medicare prescription drug benefit and Medicare Advantage prescription drug plans.

H.R. 5801, Medicaid PARTNERSHIP Act— requires each state to establish a prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP), and require health care providers to check the PDMP for a Medicaid enrollee's prescription drug history before prescribing controlled substances to the enrollee.

H.R. 5811, Long-Term Opioid Efficacy Act of 2018 – allows the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to require opioid manufacturers to conduct post-market studies to examine the long-term effectiveness of these drugs.

H.R. 6042—delays the reduction in Federal medical assistance percentage for Medicaid personal care services furnished without an electronic visit verification system.

H.R. 5773, PASS Act of 2018—requires prescription drug plan sponsors under Medicare to establish drug management programs for at-risk beneficiaries.

H.R. 5676, SENIOR Communities Protection Act of 2018—allows Medicare Part D to suspend payments to a pharmacy that is under investigation for fraud or abuse.

H.R. 5723, Expanding Oversight of Opioid Prescribing and Payment Act of 2018— requires the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) to report on adverse incentives that lead to the over-prescription of opioids.

H.R. 5774, COACH Act of 2018—requires CMS to publish guidance for hospitals on pain management and opioid-use disorder prevention strategies for Medicare beneficiaries.

H.R. 5775—Expanding Oversight of Opioid Prescribing and Payment Act of 2018— requires Medicare and Medicare Advantage prescription drug plan sponsors to annually disclose information to enrollees about the risks of prolonged opioid use and the plan's coverage of alternative treatments.

H.R. 6110, Dr. Todd Graham Pain Management, Treatment, and Recovery Act of 2018—directs the Department of Health and Human Services to study non-opioid alternatives for pain treatment.

H.R. 5762—Joint Task Force to Combat Opioid Trafficking Act of 2018— authorizes the Department of Homeland Security to establish a Joint Task Force to combat illicit opioid and fentanyl trafficking.

H.R. 4991, Supporting Research and Development for First Responders Act— designates the National Urban Security Technology Laboratory to expand research into emerging technologies for emergency response providers.

H.R. 5925, CRISIS Act—reauthorizes the Office of National Drug Control Policy with enhanced authorities to crack to respond to the opioid epidemic.

H.R. 5797, IMD Care Act—temporarily allows adult Medicaid enrollees to receive payments for treatments for opioid use disorders.

H.R. 6082, Overdose Prevention and Patient Safety Act— removes barriers that prevent doctors from accessing mental health records when treating a patient with substance use disorder.