Opioid Settlement Accountability Act

[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6956 Introduced in House (IH)]

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118th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 6956

To amend title XIX of the Social Security Act to prohibit the Secretary 
 of Health and Human Services from treating any Medicaid-related funds 
      recovered from one or more pharmaceutical companies or drug 
distributors with respect to opioid litigation as an overpayment under 
                  such title, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 11, 2024

Ms. Kaptur (for herself and Mrs. Hinson) introduced the following bill; 
       which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend title XIX of the Social Security Act to prohibit the Secretary 
 of Health and Human Services from treating any Medicaid-related funds 
      recovered from one or more pharmaceutical companies or drug 
distributors with respect to opioid litigation as an overpayment under 
                  such title, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Opioid Settlement Accountability 
Act''.

SEC. 2. PROHIBITION ON TREATING ANY MEDICAID-RELATED FUNDS RECOVERED 
              FROM ONE OR MORE PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES OR DRUG 
              DISTRIBUTORS WITH RESPECT TO OPIOID LITIGATION AS AN 
              OVERPAYMENT.

    (a) In General.--Section 1903(d)(3) of the Social Security Act (42 
U.S.C. 1396(d)(3)) is amended by adding at the end the following new 
subparagraph:
    ``(C)(i) Subparagraph (A) and paragraph (2)(B) may not apply to any 
amount recovered or paid to a State on or after December 31, 2025, as a 
part of a comprehensive settlement of opioid litigation between 
pharmaceutical manufacturers (as defined in the second sentence of 
section 102(15) of the Controlled Substances Act) or drug distributors 
(as defined in the second sentence of section 102(12) of such Act) and 
State attorneys general, or as a part of any individual State 
settlement or judgement reached in such litigation initiated or pursued 
by a State against one or more such companies or distributors.
    ``(ii) A State shall use amounts recovered or paid to the State as 
a part of comprehensive or individual settlement, or a judgement, 
described in clause (i) for--
            ``(I) supporting access to treatment (including medication 
        assisted treatment) and health care services (including 
        services provided by federally certified opioid treatment 
        programs or other appropriate health care providers to treat 
        individuals with opioid use disorder and subsequent support and 
        wrap around services that encourage employment and 
        reintegration to society);
            ``(II) education related to opioid use disorder;
            ``(III) implementing prevention activities, including the 
        reduction of the furnishing of opioids by health care 
        practitioners and introduction of non-opioid pain management 
        approaches;
            ``(IV) training for health care practitioners with respect 
        to best practices for prescribing opioids, pain management, 
        educating patients of the risk of opioid use to treat chronic 
        and acute conditions, recognizing potential cases of substance 
        abuse, referral of patients to treatment programs, and overdose 
        prevention;
            ``(V) supporting State and Federal law enforcement actions 
        and first responder capital equipment relating to the illegal 
        distribution of opioids and opioid analogues; and
            ``(VI) any other public health-related activities and 
        social support services (including housing, employment, child-
        well being, criminal justice, and emergency management) 
        relating to addressing the opioid abuse crisis within such 
        State, as such State determines appropriate; and
evaluating at least one of the activities described in this clause to 
identify effective strategies to prevent opioid abuse and substance 
abuse disorders.''.
    (b) Retroactive Effective Date.--The amendment made by this section 
shall take effect as if enacted on January 1, 2019.
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