Shaheen-Led Law Helping Address Opioid Crisis By Increasing Access to Non-Opioid Treatment Options is Being Implemented in New CMS Rule
**Shaheen’s Non-Opioids Prevent Addiction in the Nation (NOPAIN) Act requires Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to provide separate Medicare reimbursement for non-opioid treatments, helping stem the opioid epidemic**
(Washington, DC) – The NOPAIN Act, bipartisan legislation introduced and ushered into law by U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), a senior member of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, is being implemented as part of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Calendar Year 2025 Medicare Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System proposed rule. Implementing the NOPAIN Act will help address the opioid crisis by increasing access to non-opioid pain management. Shaheen’s NOPAIN Act encourages physicians to prescribe alternatives to opioids by requiring CMS to provide separate Medicare reimbursement for non-opioid treatments used to manage post-surgical pain in both the hospital outpatient department and the ambulatory surgery center settings. The guidance issued by CMS provides information on which non-opioid treatment options will be available for separate payments starting on January 1, 2025.
“We’re taking a critical step in mitigating the opioid crisis that continues to wreak havoc in the Granite State and across our country—cutting too many lives short and upending families and communities,” said Shaheen. “With full implementation of the law I wrote, we can help save lives by stemming opioid misuse through encouragement of non-opioid treatment for Medicare patients struggling with pain management. I’ll keep working across the aisle to find common-sense ways to help Granite Staters from developing addictions and becoming victims of this deadly epidemic.”
Shaheen introduced the NOPAIN Act in 2021 with U.S. Senators Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Joe Manchin (I-WV) and former U.S. Senator Rob Portman (R-OH). The bipartisan legislation was signed into law as part of the Fiscal Year 2023 funding legislation.
Shaheen has spearheaded crucial legislation and funding to stem the opioid epidemic, including through her leadership on the pivotal U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies, which funds the Department of Justice. Shaheen has also worked to increase access to substance use treatment in New Hampshire. She recently led the state’s congressional delegation in fighting for $29,880,604 in State Opioid Response (SOR) grants directed to New Hampshire. Shaheen fought to secure this funding in the government funding legislation for Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 that was signed into law. Increased funding followed the passage of Shaheen-led legislation, the State Opioid Response Grant Authorization Act, which increased funding and provided critical flexibilities for states administering SOR spending. In recent years, Shaheen successfully pushed the Department of Health and Human Services to maintain SOR funding levels for New Hampshire and avoid significant cliffs in funding year-over-year. Shaheen's efforts have led to a more than tenfold increase in federal treatment and prevention funding for New Hampshire.
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