DEA Announces Important Change to Registration Requirement

Dear DEA Registrant:

On December 29, 2022, with the signing of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 (the Act), Congress eliminated the “DATA-Waiver Program.”

DEA fully supports this significant policy reform. In this moment, when the United States is suffering tens of thousands of opioid-related drug poisoning deaths every year, the DEA’s top priority is doing everything in our power to save lives. Medication for opioid use disorder helps those who are fighting to overcome opioid use disorder by sustaining recovery and preventing overdoses. At DEA, our goal is simple: we want medication for opioid use disorder to be readily and safely available to anyone in the country who needs it. The elimination of the X-Waiver will increase access to buprenorphine for those in need.

All DEA registrants should be aware of the following:

• A DATA-Waiver registration is no longer required to treat patients with buprenorphine for opioid use disorder.
• Going forward, all prescriptions for buprenorphine only require a standard DEA registration number. The previously used DATA-Waiver registration numbers are no longer needed for any prescription.
• There are no longer any limits or patient caps on the number of patients a prescriber may treat for opioid use disorder with buprenorphine.
• The Act does not impact existing state laws or regulations that may be applicable.

Separately, the Act also introduced new training requirements for all prescribers. These requirements will not go into effect until June 21, 2023. The DEA and SAMHSA are actively working to provide further guidance and DEA will follow up with additional information on these requirements shortly. Importantly, these new requirements do not impact the changes related to elimination of the DATA-Waiver Program described above.

Sincerely,

Anne Milgram
Administrator

For information regarding DEA’s Diversion Control Division, please visit https://www.DEAdiversion.usdoj.gov.  Please contact the Diversion Control Division Policy Section at ODLP@dea.gov if you seek additional assistance regarding this or any other matter.

See original signed document.