DDAP Reminder: X-Waiver No Longer Needed to Prescribe Buprenorphine to Treat OUD

With the passage of the 2023 federal omnibus bill, which included the Mainstreaming Addiction Treatment Act, Congress eliminated the “DATA-Waiver Program.” The DATA-waiver is commonly referred to as the X-waiver.

Now, the requirement to have an X-waiver from the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA) to prescribe buprenorphine, a Schedule III narcotic, for opioid use disorder (OUD) has been removed. Any prescriber with a general DEA license can prescribe the medication.

DDAP is reminding DEA registrants of the following:

• A DATA-Waiver registration is no longer required to treat patients with buprenorphine for OUD.
• 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.
• In Pennsylvania, no current state laws or regulations prohibit practitioners from adopting this change.

Separately, the Act also introduced new training requirements for all prescribers. These requirements will go into effect on 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. Please contact the DEA’s Diversion Control Division Policy Section for additional guidance.