I 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 3680 

To provide for the Secretary of Health and Human Services to carry out 

a grant program for co-prescribing opioid overdose reversal drugs. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

OCTOBER 1, 2015 

Mr. SARBANES introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 

Committee on Energy and Commerce 

A BILL 

To provide for the Secretary of Health and Human Services 

to carry out a grant program for co-prescribing opioid 

overdose reversal drugs. 

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 ‘‘Co-Prescribing to Re5 duce Overdoses Act of 2015’’. 

6 SEC. 2. CO-PRESCRIBING OPIOID OVERDOSE REVERSAL 

7 DRUGS GRANT PROGRAM. 

8 (a) ESTABLISHMENT.— 

9 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than six months 

10 after the date of the enactment of this Act, the SecVerDate Sep 11 2014 05:13 Oct 06, 2015 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3680.IH H3680

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1 retary of Health and Human Services shall estab2 lish, in accordance with this section, a four-year co3 prescribing opioid overdose reversal drugs grant pro4 gram (in this Act referred to as the ‘‘grant pro5 gram’’) under which the Secretary shall provide not 

6 more than a total of 12 grants to eligible entities to 

7 carry out the activities described in subsection (c). 

8 (2) MAXIMUM GRANT AMOUNT.—A grant made 

9 under this section may not be for more than 

10 $200,000 per grant year. 

11 (3) ELIGIBLE ENTITY.—For purposes of this 

12 section, the term ‘‘eligible entity’’ means a federally 

13 qualified health center (as defined in section 

14 1861(aa) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 

15 1395x(aa)), an opioid treatment program under part 

16 8 of title 42, Code of Federal Regulations, or section 

17 303(g) of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 

18 823(g)), or any other entity that the Secretary 

19 deems appropriate. 

20 (4) CO-PRESCRIBING.—For purposes of this 

21 section and section 3, the term ‘‘co-prescribing’’ 

22 means, with respect to an opioid overdose reversal 

23 drug, the practice of prescribing such drug in con24 junction with an opioid prescription for patients at 

25 an elevated risk of overdose, or in conjunction with 


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1 an opioid agonist approved under section 505 of the 

2 Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 

3 355) for the treatment of opioid abuse disorders, or 

4 in other circumstances in which a provider identifies 

5 a patient at an elevated risk for an intentional or 

6 unintentional drug overdose from heroin or prescrip7 tion opioid therapies. For purposes of the previous 

8 sentence, a patient may be at an elevated risk of 

9 overdose if the patient meets the criteria under the 

10 existing co-prescribing guidelines that the Secretary 

11 deems appropriate, such as the criteria provided in 

12 the Opioid Overdose Toolkit published by the Sub13 stance Abuse and Mental Health Services Adminis14 tration. 

15 (b) APPLICATION.—To be eligible to receive a grant 

16 under this section, an eligible entity shall submit to the 

17 Secretary of Health and Human Services, in such form 

18 and manner as specified by the Secretary, an application 

19 that describes— 

20 (1) the extent to which the area to which the 

21 entity will furnish services through use of the grant 

22 is experiencing significant morbidity and mortality 

23 caused by opioid abuse; 

24 (2) the criteria that will be used to identify eli25 gible patients to participate in such program; and 


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1 (3) how such program will work to try to iden2 tify State, local, or private funding to continue the 

3 program after expiration of the grant. 

4 (c) USE OF FUNDS.—An eligible entity receiving a 

5 grant under this section may use the grant for any of the 

6 following activities: 

7 (1) To establish a program for co-prescribing 

8 opioid overdose reversal drugs, such as naloxone. 

9 (2) To train and provide resources for health 

10 care providers and pharmacists on the co-prescribing 

11 of opioid overdose reversal drugs. 

12 (3) To establish mechanisms and processes for 

13 tracking patients participating in the program de14 scribed in paragraph (1) and the health outcomes of 

15 such patients. 

16 (4) To purchase opioid overdose reversal drugs 

17 for distribution under the program described in 

18 paragraph (1). 

19 (5) To offset the co-pays and other cost sharing 

20 associated with opioid overdose reversal drugs to en21 sure that cost is not a limiting factor for eligible pa22 tients. 

23 (6) To conduct community outreach, in con24 junction with community-based organizations, de25 signed to raise awareness of co-prescribing practices, 


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1 and the availability of opioid overdose reversal 

2 drugs. 

3 (7) To establish protocols to connect patients 

4 who have experienced a drug overdose with appro5 priate treatment, including medication assisted 

6 treatment and appropriate counseling and behavioral 

7 therapies. 

8 (d) EVALUATIONS BY RECIPIENTS.—As a condition 

9 of receipt of a grant under this section, an eligible entity 

10 shall, for each year for which the grant is received, submit 

11 to the Secretary of Health and Human Services informa12 tion on appropriate outcome measures specified by the 

13 Secretary to assess the outcomes of the program funded 

14 by the grant, including— 

15 (1) the number of prescribers trained; 

16 (2) the number of prescribers who have co-pre17 scribed an opioid overdose reversal drugs to at least 

18 one patient; 

19 (3) the total number of prescriptions written for 

20 opioid overdose reversal drugs; 

21 (4) the percentage of patients at elevated risk 

22 who received a prescription for an opioid overdose 

23 reversal drug; 

24 (5) the number of patients reporting use of an 

25 opioid overdose reversal drug; and 


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1 (6) any other outcome measures that the Sec2 retary deems appropriate. 

3 (e) REPORTS BY SECRETARY.—For each year of the 

4 grant program under this section, the Secretary of Health 

5 and Human Services shall submit to the appropriate Com6 mittees of the House of Representatives and of the Senate 

7 a report aggregating the information received from the 

8 grant recipients for such year under subsection (d) and 

9 evaluating the outcomes achieved by the programs funded 

10 by grants made under this section. 

11 SEC. 3. OPIOID OVERDOSE REVERSAL CO-PRESCRIBING 

12 GUIDELINES. 

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

14 Human Services shall establish a grant program under 

15 which the Secretary shall award grants to eligible State 

16 entities to develop opioid overdose reversal co-prescribing 

17 guidelines. 

18 (b) ELIGIBLE STATE ENTITIES.—For purposes of 

19 subsection (a), eligible State entities are State depart20 ments of health in conjunction with State medical boards; 

21 city, county, and local health departments; and community 

22 stakeholder groups involved in reducing opioid overdose 

23 deaths. 

24 (c) ADMINISTRATIVE PROVISIONS.— 


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1 (1) GRANT AMOUNTS.—A grant made under 

2 this section may not be for more than $200,000 per 

3 grant. 

4 (2) PRIORITIZATION.—In awarding grants 

5 under this section, the Secretary shall give priority 

6 to eligible State entities which propose to base their 

7 guidelines on existing guidelines on co-prescribing to 

8 speed enactment, including guidelines of— 

9 (A) the Department of Veterans Affairs; 

10 (B) nationwide medical societies, such as 

11 the American Society of Addiction Medicine or 

12 American Medical Association; and 

13 (C) the Centers for Disease Control and 

14 Prevention. 

15 SEC. 4. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 

16 There is authorized to be appropriated to carry out 

17 this Act $4,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2016 through 

18 2020. 

Æ 


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