On May 9 and May 17, 2018, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce ordered 59 bills to be reported related to the nation’s response to the opioid epidemic. Because of the large number of related bills ordered reported by the Committee, CBO is publishing a single comprehensive document that includes estimates for each piece of legislation.
H.R. 5798, the Opioid Screening and Chronic Pain Management Alternatives for Seniors Act, would add an assessment of current opioid prescriptions and screening for opioid use disorder to the Welcome to Medicare Initial Preventive Physical Examination. Based on historical use of the examinations and pain management alternatives, CBO expects that enacting the bill would increase use of pain management services and estimates that direct spending would increase by $5 million over the 2019-2028 period.
