Here are four things to know:
1. More restrictions have been placed on physicians who wish to and currently do prescribe oral buprenorphine, an opioid replacement with the added benefit of lessening addiction cravings, than those placed on prescription opioid painkillers.
2. Physicians prescribed more than 250 million opioid painkillers in 2012, and opioid overdoses killed 47,000 people in 2014.
3. Despite the FDA approving buprenorphine in 2002, the treatment remains underused, largely because of the difficulties physicians face in obtaining the right to prescribe it.
4. Recently, the U.S. House passed 18 opioid-related bills.
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