FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Hannah Muldavin, Hannah.Muldavin@mail.house.gov

Rep. David Trone Celebrates New Opioid Prescription Guidelines for Federal Employees

In May, Trone urged Labor Department to release new rules to curb opioid abuse among federal employees

Washington, DC – Today, Rep. David Trone (MD-06) celebrated the new opioid prescription guidelines recently announced by the U.S. Department of Labor. In May, Trone questioned then-Labor Secretary Alex Acosta on the issue and urged him to change the guidelines. 

The new guidelines restrict an initial prescription of opioids to seven days for federal employees under the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program, helping to reduce addiction and overdose deaths. This shortens the length of time from the previous guidelines, which allowed for a 30-day initial supply. 

Previous guidelines also allowed patients to receive two concurrent opioid prescriptions without agency approval, effectively allowing a patient to receive a 120 day supply of opioids without a letter of medical necessity. The guidelines will now state that an individual must consult a clinical professional every 28 days to renew an opioid prescription. 

“We must do everything we can to stop 192 people from dying every day from the addiction crisis, and we can start by preventing people from getting addicted in the first place. In short, these new guidelines will help save lives.” said Rep. David Trone, founder of the Freshmen Working Group on Addiction. 

Congressman David Trone was elected to the House of Representatives in November 2018 to serve the 6th District of Maryland. In Congress, he founded the Freshmen Working Group on Addiction, a bipartisan group of 64 freshmen lawmakers dedicated to ending the addiction epidemic in the country. Thus far, the group has visited Johns Hopkins Medical facilities to see the latest research on addiction, introduced legislation to combat the spread of the epidemic, and promoted practices and policies to tackle the crisis from every angle. In June, Trone wrote about the progress the group has made within Congress, acknowledging the long way we still have to go to stop the spread of addiction.

###