Bill attacking methadone flexibilities appears dead after field pushback

Last year, Rep. Erin Houchin (R‐Indiana) introduced a bill which would undo the flexibilities put into methadone treatment policies in opioid treatment programs (OTPs) by the federal government in 2024 (see ADAW https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adaw.34023 ). These flexibilities included more liberal take‐home policies, which were based on experience during the COVID 2019 pandemic, when such policies were allowed to avoid the possible transmission of the virus by patients going to OTPs to pick up medication. The experience was positive: there was no increase in adverse events such as diversion or deaths due to the more liberal take‐homes. In fact, liberalizing take‐homes and other flexibility rules for OTPs are seen as tools to fight the fentanyl epidemic, which is still killing tk people a year in the United States.