CBO Issues Cost Estimate for Opioid Prescription Verification Act

WASHINGTON, Sept. 23 -- The Congressional Budget Office issued the following cost estimate for Opioid Prescription Verification Act (H.R. 2355):

H.R. 2355 would require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to update materials that provide guidance for pharmacists, health care providers, and patients about when a pharmacist may decline to fill a prescription for a controlled substance. The updated materials would include information for pharmacists on how to verify the identity of the patient. Based on historical spending patterns for similar activities, CBO estimates that costs to the federal government of developing and distributing those materials would not be significant.

The bill would also specify criteria the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may use when determining amounts for grants to state, local, and tribal governments to prevent overdoses of controlled substances. Those new criteria could affect the amounts awarded to a specific entity, but CBO estimates they would not affect the total amount of grants awarded; therefore, the provision would have no federal budgetary effect.

The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Sarah Sajewski. The estimate was reviewed by Leo Lex, Deputy Director of Budget Analysis.

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See table link here: https://www.cbo.gov/system/files/2021-09/hr2355.pdf