Briefly Noted

Last week, a letter from Senators Edward J. Markey (D‐Mass.), Elizabeth Warren (D‐Mass.), Jeanne Shaheen (D‐N.H.), Dianne Feinstein (D‐Calif.) and Maggie Hassan (D‐N.H.) asked the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to immediately increase the patient cap — the maximum number of patients a physician can prescribe buprenorphine for — from 275 to 500. In addition, the letter requests that SAMHSA immediately process requests for emergency patient‐limit increases. “You can and should take immediate action to ensure that patients with OUD opioid use disorder] are not denied the medication they need, do not exacerbate the strain on our nation's emergency departments and hospitals, and, most importantly, are not added to the COVID‐19 death count,” write the senators in their letter to HHS Secretary Alex Azar and SAMHSA Assistant Secretary Elinore McCance‐Katz, M.D. “We must empower our heroic health care providers to treat and save as many lives as possible in this time of crisis.” For the letter, go to https://www.markey.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/HHS%20SAMHSA%20Letter%20re%20Buprenorphine%20Prescriber%20Limits.pdf .