WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Rep. Katie Hill led a bipartisan letter to the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), signed by 30 other Members of Congress, to urge the organization to require all new doctors receive the necessary training to treat people suffering from opioid use disorder.

“In the United States, the opioid epidemic is more deadly than H.I.V., car crashes, or gun violence. Right now, we actually have the science to treat this epidemic — yet, we don’t have enough trained doctors to provide that life-saving treatment because the training needed isn’t a medical school or residency requirement. That must change,” said Hill, D-Agua Dulce. “That’s why I led this initiative to ensure we pursue every option we have available to us to curb opioid deaths and get people the treatment they need. It’s time that we train our doctors to treat this epidemic like the public health crisis it is. Sending this letter is step one.”

Drug overdoses have increased so much that they have actually contributed to the decrease of our country’s life expectancy for three years in a row – a trend that hasn’t happened since World War I and the flu pandemic a century ago. In fact, drug overdoses are the leading cause of death for adults under 55. Even so, currently less than seven percent of doctors have the ability to prescribe buprenorphine, an opioid treatment that is proven to reduce fatal overdoses by half or more.

“It is shameful for us not do everything we can to address this epidemic. Training new physicians in how to diagnose and treat this is the most efficient and effective way to begin to turn this epidemic around,” said Dr. Josiah Rich, an advisor to the Rhode Island Governor’s Overdose Prevention and Intervention Task Force. “Every day that goes by that we are not requiring this training can be measured in the increased number of people dying and lives destroyed.”

In their response, ACGME explained how they track training program milestones and core competencies, as well as the ways in which they are addressing the treatment gap, but declined to respond to more specific questions, such as what percentage of residents in fields that care for patients with addiction receive the required training to prescribe buprenorphine. Representative Hill will continue to seek answers, in addition to solutions, involving increased access to evidence-based treatment for opioid addiction, and will press residencies to do more to train physicians who care for patients suffering from addiction.