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New Changes from the DEA for 2023

from Bill Claytor

MATE ACT CE Requirements

Many questions and concerns have been presented to me over the past several weeks about the NEW MATE Act CE requirements. I thought I would include two valuable resources I have found to be useful for your review. The first one is from SAMHSA and the second is from the ADA. Please see brief summaries below with links in case you want to read in more detail. Thank you for your questions and interest and I hope this helps you navigate these new requirements.

Bill Claytor DDS, MAGD

NCCDP, Executive Director

MATE Act CE Requirements

(Note: The MATE CE requirement is from the DEA, a component of the Department of Justice, and is not from the NC State Board of Dental Examiners)

Information from SAMHSA:

The United States faces a crisis of deaths from opioids, stimulants, synthetic agents, tobacco and alcohol.1 These deaths represent a mere fraction of the total number of Americans harmed by substance misuse, and many people suffer daily from chronic use disorders. The long-term effects of substance misuse impact individuals, families, and communities. This is further compounded by changing patterns of substance misuse, as well as an increasing incidence of polysubstance use. The rise in fentanyl use or exposure, concurrent substance misuse, as well as overdose deaths, necessitates consideration of educational elements that promote understanding of SUDs, as well as their identification, treatment, and management.

Federal and state policy over the last decade has sought to overcome the long-term effects of substance misuse impacting individuals, families, communities, and those charged with resource allocation. Most recently, Section 1263 of the ‘Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023’ otherwise known as the Medication Access and Training Expansion (MATE) Act, requires new or renewing Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) registrants, as of June 27, 2023, to have completed a total of at least 8 hours of training on opioid or other substance use disorders, as well as the safe pharmacological management of dental pain.

Practitioners can meet this requirement in one of three ways:

  • A total of 8-hours of training from a range of training entities on opioid or other substance use disorders; or
  • Board certification in addiction medicine or addiction psychiatry from the American Board of Medical Specialties, American Board of Addiction Medicine, or the American Osteopathic Association; or
  • Graduation within 5 years and in good standing from a medical, advanced practice nursing, or physician assistant school in the United States that included successful completion of an opioid or other substance use disorder curriculum of at least 8 hours. This curriculum must have included teaching on the treatment and management of patients with opioid and other substance use disorders, including the appropriate clinical use of all drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of a substance use disorder.

To read more, click:

https://www.samhsa.gov/medications-substance-use-disorders/provider-support-services/recommendations-curricular-elements-substance-use-disorders-training

Information from the ADA:

Medication Access and Training Expansion Act Included in Appropriations Bill

Provision includes continuing education requirement for DEA registration.

The Medication Access and Training Expansion Act, or MATE Act, was included in the omnibus spending bill that passed Congress at the end of 2022. The new law requires dentists to complete eight hours of training before receiving or renewing a Drug Enforcement Administration registration.

The ADA successfully advocated for Congress to amend certain provisions of the MATE Act to comport with ADA policy. This included prompting lawmakers to remove a requirement from the original bill that meant dentists would have to complete three hours of specialized training to safely prescribe buprenorphine, which is outside the scope of dental practice.

The MATE Act was also amended to allow:

  • Dentists to apply continuing education credits accepted for state licensure towards their federally required training, as well as courses taken through ADA CERP providers.
  • New dentists who are less than five years out of dental school to use their dental school courses towards the federally required training.

To read more plus FAQs, click:

https://www.ada.org/-/media/project/ada-organization/ada/ada-org/files/resources/practice/legal-and-regulatory/faq_mate-act.pdf?rev=2d62d028e6cf49869624d1cfa4e442c3&hash=A7D5EB01BC19DA0ADC5968E336996DA5

I hope this helps and will be a resource to answer some of your questions and concerns.

Thank you!