The White House continues to take steps to try to expand access to buprenorphine-based drugs that are used to help treat opioid addiction.
On Wednesday, Michael Botticelli, the director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, wrote to all 50 governors, urging them to guide doctors and medical students toward free buprenorphine trainings offered through the federal government.
Doctors must be specially certified to prescribe the drugs, like Suboxone and Bunavail, and once trained can treat no more than 30 patients in their first year.
The Obama administration recently finalized a rule that will allow a doctor, following that first year, to treat up to 275 patients with buprenorphine, up from 100.
The administration had originally proposed raising the limit just to 200 patients, but settled on 275 when the final rule was released.
"Research shows that access to medication-assisted treatment (MAT) saves lives by significantly increasing the likelihood of successful recovery for people with opioid use disorders," Botticelli wrote. "Unfortunately there are not enough physicians trained to use [medication-assisted treatment] and prepared to treat people with the disease of addiction."
Dr. Robert Califf, Obama's newly confirmed commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, likewise championed the increased use of medication-assisted treatment for opioid abuse during a visit to Charleston Tuesday.
As of February, there were nearly 1,500 counties nationwide that did not have a doctor with the requisite training to prescribe buprenorphine, Botticelli said.
In West Virginia, there were 167 doctors certified to prescribe the drug as of March, according to the state Department of Health and Human Resources.
Botticelli wrote to Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, asking him to provide information on the free trainings to physicians and medical schools in the state.
But buprenorphine, or "bupe," is an opioid itself, can be abused and is often sold as a street drug.
At Tomblin's request, the state Legislature recently passed a bill to regulate Suboxone clinics.
That bill requires Suboxone clinics to offer counseling in conjunction with treatment and to drug test their patients, to ensure that they are using the medication as intended.
It also allows the state to regularly inspect such clinics and requires them to collect and submit data on their performance.
Reach David Gutman at david.gutman@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5119 or follow @davidlgutman on Twitter.