II 

118TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 4429 

To require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to provide grants 

to demonstrate pharmacy-based addiction care programs. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MAY 23, 2024 

Mr. BOOKER (for himself, Mr. BRAUN, and Mr. MARKEY) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on 

Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions 

A BILL 

To require the Secretary of Health and Human Services 

to provide grants to demonstrate pharmacy-based addiction care programs. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Substance Use Preven5 tion and Pharmacy Oriented Recovery Treatment Pre6 scription Act’’ or the ‘‘SUPPORT Rx Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. PHARMACY-BASED ADDICTION CARE DEMONSTRA2 TION PROGRAM. 

3 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of Health and 

4 Human Services (referred to in this section as the ‘‘Sec5 retary’’) shall carry out a 3-year demonstration program 

6 under which the Secretary shall award grants to eligible 

7 entities to establish, maintain, or improve a pharmacy8 based addiction care program. 

9 (b) ELIGIBILITY.—To be eligible to receive a grant 

10 under subsection (a), an entity shall be— 

11 (1) a State, Tribal, or local health department; 

12 (2) a partnership between such a health depart13 ment and 1 or more other public entities or private 

14 entities located in a State, the laws of which allow 

15 pharmacists to prescribe, or enter into collaborative 

16 practice agreements with physicians authorized to 

17 prescribe, a controlled substance that is listed on 

18 schedule III of section 202(c) of the Controlled Sub19 stances Act (21 U.S.C. 812(c)); or 

20 (3) a specialty addiction treatment practitioner 

21 in a primary care setting or a specialty substance 

22 use disorder treatment facility. 

23 (c) APPLICATIONS.—An eligible entity desiring a 

24 grant under subsection (a) shall submit to the Secretary 

25 an application at such time, in such manner, and conVerDate Sep 11 2014 20:51 Jul 16, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4429.IS S4429

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1 taining such information as the Secretary may require, in2 cluding— 

3 (1) a plan to establish a collaborative practice 

4 agreement— 

5 (A) through which board certified addic6 tion medicine physicians or addiction psychia7 trists shall collaborate with pharmacists per8 mitted to enter into such agreements under ap9 plicable State law in order to enable such phar10 macists to provide drug therapy management; 

11 and 

12 (B) under which the prescriptive authority 

13 of a pharmacist shall not exceed the authority 

14 that is specified in the collaborative practice 

15 agreement; 

16 (2) a description of activities proposed to be 

17 carried out pursuant to the grant; and 

18 (3) a plan to sustain activities described in such 

19 application following the conclusion of the grant pe20 riod. 

21 (d) USE OF FUNDS.— 

22 (1) IN GENERAL.—An eligible entity receiving a 

23 grant under subsection (a) shall use the grant funds 

24 to establish, maintain, or improve a comprehensive, 

25 pharmacy-based addiction care program to support 


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1 withdrawal, induction, ongoing care, and rescue for 

2 individuals with opioid or other substance use dis3 orders, provided by and at community pharmacies, 

4 including by— 

5 (A) offering buprenorphine for opioid and 

6 other substance use disorders, and managing 

7 withdrawal from opioids and other substances 

8 when appropriate, induction, and maintenance 

9 care; 

10 (B) rendering same-day care services of 

11 low-barrier treatment, with no or reduced re12 quirements, including no or reduced require13 ments for payment, insurance, age limits (to 

14 the extent authorized under State or Federal 

15 law), and identification; and 

16 (C) training pharmacists on treating and 

17 managing patients with opioid and other sub18 stance use disorders, which training, at a min19 imum, shall be in accordance with paragraph 

20 (1)(B) of the second subsection (l) of section 

21 303 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 

22 U.S.C. 823) (as added by section 1263(a) of 

23 the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 

24 (Public Law 117–328; 136 Stat. 5683)). 


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1 (2) ADDITIONAL USES.—In addition to uses de2 scribed in paragraph (1), an eligible entity receiving 

3 a grant under subsection (a) shall use the grant 

4 funds— 

5 (A) to provide compensation to staff for 

6 pharmacy program and other program oper7 ations for which the staff would not otherwise 

8 receive compensation; 

9 (B) to provide payment for an individual to 

10 obtain not more than a 30-day supply of 

11 buprenorphine prescribed at any one time under 

12 the pharmacy-based addiction care program 

13 supported by the grant; 

14 (C) to provide care continuity fee payments 

15 to providers or clinics the patients of which 

16 transfer their maintenance care to the phar17 macy-based addiction care program supported 

18 by the grant to support good recordkeeping, 

19 safe transfer, and transition in care; 

20 (D) to provide telebehavioral health serv21 ices; 

22 (E) to provide construction to permit pri23 vate or semi-private spaces for counseling and 

24 administration of medication; 


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1 (F) to provide secure technology that is in 

2 compliance with HIPAA privacy regulations, as 

3 defined in section 1180(b)(3) of the Social Se4 curity Act (42 U.S.C. 1320d–9(b)(3)); 

5 (G) to establish a collaborative practice 

6 agreement described in subsection (c)(1); 

7 (H) to pay for the costs of training staff 

8 in administration of opioid reversal medications 

9 approved by the Food and Drug Administra10 tion; 

11 (I) to pay for other necessary staff train12 ing, including the training described in para13 graph (1)(C); and 

14 (J) to pay for registration fees in each ap15 plicable State in accordance with section 302(e) 

16 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 

17 822(e)). 

18 (3) LIMITATION.—No funds made available 

19 under a grant under subsection (a) may be used to 

20 prescribe or dispense any drug other than 

21 buprenorphine or an opioid overdose reversal drug. 

22 (e) PHARMACY-BASED ADDICTION CARE GUID23 ANCE.—Not later than 180 days after the date of enact24 ment of this Act, the Secretary shall issue guidance to pro25 vide eligible entities and pharmacists with technical assistVerDate Sep 11 2014 20:51 Jul 16, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4429.IS S4429

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1 ance, recommendations, and best practices regarding 

2 treatment to support management of withdrawal from 

3 opioids and other substances when appropriate, induction, 

4 ongoing care, and rescue. 

5 (f) REPORT TO THE SECRETARY.—Each recipient of 

6 a grant under subsection (a) shall submit to the Secretary 

7 an annual evaluation of the progress of the pharmacy8 based addiction care program supported by the grant, in9 cluding information on— 

10 (1) the number of patients receiving treatment; 

11 (2) any changes in local rates of overdose over 

12 the course of the grant; and 

13 (3) any other readily available information the 

14 Secretary determines necessary, including— 

15 (A) cost data; 

16 (B) patient-reported outcomes; 

17 (C) overdose data; 

18 (D) hospitalization data; 

19 (E) quality and safety measures; 

20 (F) program retention data; 

21 (G) data on the opioid prescriptions fill 

22 rates; 

23 (H) the demographic characteristics of pa24 tients who were treated by the program; and 


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1 (I) any other information the Secretary de2 termines necessary. 

3 (g) REPORT TO CONGRESS.—Not later than 120 days 

4 after completion of the demonstration program under this 

5 section, the Secretary shall submit to Congress a report 

6 that describes the results of the demonstration program, 

7 including— 

8 (1) the number of applications received for 

9 grants under the demonstration program, and the 

10 number of grants awarded; 

11 (2) a summary of the evaluations submitted 

12 under subsection (f), including standardized data; 

13 and 

14 (3) recommendations for broader implementa15 tion of pharmacy-based addiction models of care. 

16 (h) FUNDING.—The Secretary shall carry out the 

17 demonstration program under this section using amounts 

18 available to the Secretary, and not otherwise obligated, for 

19 the Harm Reduction Grant Program of the Substance 

20 Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration pursu21 ant to section 516(a) of the Public Health Service Act (42 

22 U.S.C. 290bb–22(a)) and section 2706 of the American 

23 Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (42 U.S.C. 290dd–3 note; Public 

24 Law 117–2). 

Æ 


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