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Doctors and advocates urge fewer buprenorphine barriers; committee took testimony but did not vote
Summary
Physicians and addiction experts told the House committee that buprenorphine expands access to treatment for opioid use disorder and urged removing prescriptive, visit-frequency and urine-screening mandates. The committee held the bill for discussion and asked the Board of Medical Licensure to consider regulatory changes.
The House Standing Committee on Health Services held a discussion on House Bill 788, a measure lawmakers described as intended to reduce regulatory barriers to prescribing buprenorphine for opioid-use disorder. The committee did not take a vote on the bill but invited medical experts to answer questions.
Dr. Pat Murphy, regional director of the American Society of Addiction Medicine and a professor at the University of Louisville, described buprenorphine as a partial opioid with a ceiling effect that reduces overdose risk compared with methadone. “If everyone who needs this medication could have access to it, we could drop our overdose death rate by 50 percent,” Murphy said, citing national estimates and research that shaped his testimony.
Murphy urged lowering barriers that discourage primary-care clinicians from prescribing by creating overly prescriptive requirements. He described federal deregulation over recent years — including removal of patient caps and some training requirements — and recommended treating buprenorphine like other Schedule III medications while preserving statutory safeguards and prescription monitoring. He also noted that Kentucky retains state-specific buprenorphine rules and that federal guidance and SAMHSA actions favor low-barrier access.
Representative Mosier and committee members asked about patient-visit frequency, urine-screening mandates and the board’s role. Sponsors said the bill would allow clinicians to follow medical best practices and that the state Board of Medical Licensure already has authorities and tools, including prescription monitoring systems such as KASPER.
Representative Duvall commented in favor of “guardrails” but warned against micromanaging clinicians. The committee did not vote on HB 788; members said they appreciated the technical briefing and invited the Board of Medical Licensure to continue reviewing regulatory requirements that may be out of step with current federal guidance.
What the testimony showed: Witnesses emphasized evidence that buprenorphine reduces overdose deaths, that stigma remains a barrier to prescribing, and that well-structured clinical judgment and monitoring can reduce diversion risk without broad prescriptive mandates.
Next steps: The committee treated the bill as discussion-only and asked the Board of Medical Licensure and other regulatory stakeholders to pursue possible rule changes and continue dialogue with prescribers.
